UMD has once again excelled in the annual Campus Race to Zero Waste competition (formerly RecycleMania). This year, we achieved impressive results in the category of Waste Diversion, which measures the percentage of materials that are recycled and composted rather than sent to landfills. UMD ranked second nationally among large and very large schools and was the top university in both the state of Maryland and the Big 10. Our diversion rate during the competition was 56.825%.
UMD also competed in the Per Capita and Food Organics competitions. Each year FM's Waste Management team meticulously tracks the tonnage of waste created by the university community, analyzes our sustainability performance, and reports it to the competition.
The Campus Race to Zero Waste is an eight-week campus competition held each spring to help schools benchmark their waste reduction efforts. It has been held annually since 2001. More information is available on the competition’s website.