Ohio State has adopted a zero-waste goal to divert 90% of the 20,000 tons of campus waste away from landfills by 2025. One issue limiting this achievement is the amount of recycling contamination, in which items that cannot be recycled actually pollute the entire batch of recyclables causing the batch to be sent straight to the landfill instead. Make sure to rinse out bottles and containers to be clean of any food waste before throwing in the recycling bin.
According to a study completed at the end of 2019, 50% of all waste in Central Ohio is being diverted from the SWACO municipal landfill to be recycled – this is great news! If you live off campus you have likely seen or used those big blue recycling canisters. If your residency has one of these, great, if not you can still contribute to the recycling effort in Columbus through the Drop box recycling program. There are over 200 public recycling drop boxes available through SWACO.
