Campus Race to Zero Waste 

Campus Race to Zero Waste is an annual 8-week competition for U.S. college and university recycling programs to see who can recycle the most! OSU has been competing since 2005 and currently competes for the largest amount of recyclables per capita and the largest amount of total recyclables. Campus Recycling weighs and measures all recycling from on-campus and reports it weekly during the competition (trash and compost weights are not trackable at this time). For more information on the national competition, please visit the official Campus Race to Zero Waste website. (The name of the competition was changed from "RecycleMania" to Campus Race to Zero Waste in the summer of 2020.)

trophyCampus Race to Zero Waste Oregon Classic

In 2010, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon created our own Campus Race to Zero Waste competition. Called the Campus Race to Zero Waste Oregon Classic, the competition is to see which university can recycle the most, in pounds per person. A UO student created a trophy out of all reused materials, which is passed between our schools, depending on who wins each year.

OSU won for the first three years until UO beat us for the first time in 2013 and again in 2014. OSU won the trophy back in 2015 but UO reclaimed it in the 2016 competition and again in 2017. OSU won it back in 2018, and again in 2019 and 2020. 

The OSU results page is updated weekly during the competition to show our score against the University of Oregon. View past years' results here.