Campus Race To Zero Waste

Georgetown University participates in the Campus Race to Zero Waste, a nationwide friendly competition and benchmarking tool that promotes waste-reduction activities across campus communities. Over an 8-week period in the Spring, Georgetown and numerous other colleges and universities will report the amount of recycling, trash, and compost collected each week and be ranked in various categories. We’ll follow our performance against other schools and use the results to rally our campus to reduce and recycle more!
For more information about Campus Race To Zero Waste, visit here
Categories
Georgetown University participates in the following categories:
- Diversion: The goal of this category is to divert waste from the landfill through reduction and recycling strategies. The Diversion category awards the school with the highest waste diversion percentage. Diversion is determined by the percentage of the total weight of recyclables and food organics diverted from total waste generated.
- Per Capita Recycling: The Per Capita category is the original and most recognized competition format. It is named in honor of Steve Gaski of Miami University, an early supporter of the Campus Race to Zero Waste (formerly called RecycleMania) in its first years. In this category schools compete to see which can collect the largest combined amount of paper, cardboard and bottles and cans on a per person basis.
- Reduce Food Loss By Rescuing Food: Schools take a closer look at what happens to viable food (food overage) after services are done and then prioritize rescuing/redirecting the viable food that is commonly lost to the practices of compost and anaerobic digestion. Viable food should be redirected to feed people, repurposed to feed livestock, and captured for bio-industry uses.
- Diverting Food Waste from Landfills/Incineration: Schools will report on food loss (i.e., was not captured to feed people, livestock or repurposed for bio-industrial use) but was diverted away from landfills / incineration through the practices of food waste composting and anaerobic digestion.
Get Involved!
Check out our Events Calendar for all listed events
2027 Events
Coming Soon!
Additional Engagements
- Download the Big Belly App to compost outdoors at selected locations at the Hilltop Campus
- At Leo’s? Compost any food scraps or food-soiled papers on the top floor. Enroll in the Ozzi Reusable To-Go Container Program to take food to go from Leo’s and reduce single-use plastics
Reports
