Campus Race to Zero Waste

Since 2010, Purdue University has participated in Campus Race to Zero Waste, formerly called RecycleMania, an annual spring recycling competition among hundreds of universities across the United States and Canada. The goal of this friendly competition is to increase recycling rates and reduce overall waste. 

On a weekly basis over the course of eight weeks, each participating college/university reports the amount of recycling and trash collected. Reported numbers are used to rank participants in various categories, including per capita recycling rates, highest recycling rate as a percentage of total waste, and lowest amount of combined trash and recycling.

In the past, Purdue has achieved higher rankings in various categories, including electronics recycling and Food Organics.