UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For the first time in recent years, Penn State is participating in the Campus Race to Zero Waste Competition (formerly Recyclemania). This college competition, organized by the National Wildlife Federation, aims to assist U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities in advancing campus recycling and waste reduction efforts. The competition, which runs for eight weeks, started on Jan. 29 and runs through to March 25. The competition requires weekly data reporting of weights of materials collected across campus.

The goals for participating in this competition include:

• Reducing waste and increasing campus recycling efforts. 
• Focusing on target audiences or areas of campus (faculty, staff and students, residence halls, etc.).
• Raising the University’s support for campus’ waste reduction and recycling programs.
• Benchmarking against other institutions.

This year, Penn State is participating in the following categories:

• Per Capita Recycling – focusing on increasing campus recycling rate by tracking and reporting recyclables collected.
• Diversion – tracking and reporting the amount of recyclables (cans/bottles, paper, and cardboard), food/organics and trash on a weekly basis.
• Electronics Waste – tracking the amount of computers, printers, consumer electronics and other scrap or refurbish-eligible materials collected across campus.
• Game Day: Basketball – reporting the amount of recyclables, food waste and trash generated during one home basketball game.
• Race to Zero Waste: One Building Challenge – focusing on comprehensive efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle the greatest amount of waste from a single designated building. University Park's Physical Plant Building was chosen for this category.

“Penn State will report our calculated waste and recycling weights weekly to benchmark against other colleges and universities both in the U.S. and Canada throughout the entire eight-week competition,” said Ayodeji Oluwalana, Penn State’s waste reduction and recycling program manager. “While the competition is stiff with hundreds of institutions participating, we hope to leverage this year’s competition to actively engage all campus stakeholders to support our waste reduction, contamination reduction and recycling efforts.”