RRS examines university recycling, sustainability activities

Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), Ann Arbor, Michigan, has announced the release of the Examination of U.S. University Sustainability and Recovery Activities report, which provides an overview of recycling, organics recovery and sustainability activities on U.S. university and college campuses.

RRS reports that it conducted the independent study via online research of 312 universities in the U.S., categorizing findings by region and student enrollment size. According to a news release from RRS on the report, key findings of the study include:

• 63 percent of schools sampled have an established recycling program on campus;
• 33 percent of schools sampled have some type of composting available on campus, yet the types of materials accepted in these programs varied;
• 24 percent is the average recycling rate at surveyed schools; and
• 45 percent is the average diversion rate—which includes recycling and composting activities—at surveyed schools.

“Higher education institutions are centers of innovation and can be proving grounds for new ideas,” says Kelly Domino, consultant with RRS and the report’s lead author. “We wanted to see how these mini cities were making progress on the sustainability and material management front. Plus, this report provides peer schools with information they can use to benchmark their own programs.”

RRS says it conducted online research into universities and colleges in the U.S. prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data in this report is reflective of educational institutions’ sustainability and recovery activities before the pandemic and does not include the impact of COVID-19 on those activities. The full report is available online.