Syracuse University will participate in the Campus Race to Zero Waste, a national competition of colleges and universities from across the United States and Canada. The competition’s goal is simple: increase campus recycling and composting and decrease waste while raising awareness, with just a little bit of competition and bragging rights at stake between campuses.
Each week, the University will report its amount of recycling, trash and compost. Campuses will be ranked based on who recycles the most on a per capita basis as well as which schools have the best recycling rate as a percentage of total waste and which schools generate the least trash and recycling.
In total, last year’s participants helped divert nearly 28 million pounds of waste from the landfill/waste-to-energy facility. Syracuse University partners with Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) and Syracuse Haulers to collect, weigh, report and dispose of all waste. In 2022, Syracuse came in 16th out of 103 in the Food Organics category and 37th in the Diversion category.