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UCLA Sustainability Launches Zero Waste Campaign

Sustainability_inside article

With more than a million pounds of waste produced each year at UCLA, the Office of Sustainability has launched a zero waste initiative to clean up campus and reduce the amount of trash that ends up in landfills.

UCLA’s waste diversion rate, the amount of waste that is recycled or composted, is currently 56%. A goal for the future is to reach 90%, with only 10% of UCLA’s waste ending up in a landfill.

Properly sorting trash is the key. Waste bins distributed across campus by Facilities Management use an easy-to-follow three-stream system to curb environmental damage by redirecting garbage out of landfills.
Recyclable material – paper, plastic, metal, glass

  • Compostable material – food, paper products, yard waste,
  • Landfill material – food and snack wrappers, Styrofoam

To encourage Bruins to treat our trash more sustainability, faculty, staff and students can participate in the Think Outside the Landfill Challenge. Each week features a different waste diversion challenge and each weekly challenge completed is an entry in a prize giveaway.

The Office of Sustainability partnered with Events & Transportation’s Integrated Marketing & Communications team to create visuals to promote the campaign. Those assets were pushed out to departments and on social media to encourage participation from Bruins.

To learn more about how to help UCLA reach the zero waste target, visit
http://www.sustain.ucla.edu/zero-waste and follow @zerowasteucla on Instagram.