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Communication March 3, 2025

Dear AU Community,  

Campus Race to Zero Waste is at the halfway mark, and AU is ranked 28th out of 65 competing universities. Thank you to everyone for your participation. AU’s Zero Waste team is tracking the amount of waste sent to compost, recycling, and landfill and reporting weekly on our progress. To date, AU keeps about 36 percent of its waste out of the landfill by donating leftover food, composting food waste, or recycling. We know that if everyone sorted their waste, we could keep more than 65% of our waste out of landfills.  

Here’s how you can get involved now to help AU climb in the rankings: 

  • Check signage to make sure you are sorting compostables and recyclables correctly. 
  • Empty your recyclable items before recycling them to keep our recycling free of food and liquids. 
  • Bring your reusable water bottle, mug, and utensils with you everywhere you go. 
  • Tell your friends and colleagues about the Campus Race to Zero Waste and bring them with you to our events. 

Since February 2, we have tipped off the competition with 960 of the Eagles’ biggest fans at the annual Sustainability Men’s Basketball Game, completed several waste audits of our campus buildings, talked about reducing food waste with 1,200 students in TDR, and collected 430 pounds of e-waste to recycle. 

In the coming weeks, be sure to join us for the following Sustainability-related events:  

  • March 5 - Get hands-on with our campus waste at a waste audit of the Mary Graydon Center 
  • March 27 – During the final week of the Campus Race to Zero Waste, the whole AU community is invited to celebrate the depth and breadth of sustainability scholarship on campus at AU’s Sustainability Symposium with the Office of Sustainability and the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity. 

Keep up to date with AU’s progress and find event details on the Sustainability webpage and stay posted on upcoming events by following us on Instagram @thegreenau and @zerowasteau.