Yale University
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

RecycleMania is a ten-week intercollegiate competition between hundreds of colleges and universities. Over the 10-week period, schools report recycling and trash data which are then ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate. With each week’s reports and rankings, participating schools watch how their results fluctuate against other schools and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more. Yale's primary goal is to increase our recycling rate and decrease the total amount of waste generated by the University. Yale also pledged to implement the following waste reduction practices on our campus: 1. Active program to sell or donate campus surplus property. 2. Working with vendors to reduce transportation packaging (e.g. require vendors shipping on a pallet to take it back with the next delivery; redesign shipping packaging for waste minimization or recyclability, etc). 3. Reusing and/or redistribute packing materials from central stores and campus distribution centers. 4. Promoting inter-office reusable envelopes for campus mail and review/improve campus systems for reclaiming extra envelopes for reuse. 5. Replacing paper documents with online alternatives wherever possible (e.g. telephone directories, course catalogs, room selection, bill payment, grade distribution, etc.) . 6. Promoting the use of printer settings and paper reduction software (e.g. GreenPrint). 7. Creating an office supplies exchange program on campus. 8. Offering reusable dinnerware and utensils in all sit-down dining facilities.

Yale tallied the weights for trash and recycling weekly to gauge our progress toward reducing total waste and increasing our recycling rate. At the end of the competition our recycling rate was 22%.