MSU is in the midst of a nationwide college campus waste reduction competition that spans from the first week of February to the last week of March. Campus Race for Zero Waste, formerly known as Recyclemania, aims to encourage waste reduction and diversion at universities through friendly competition.
Campus Race for Zero Waste has four main categories with official rankings: reducing food waste and organic materials, zero waste, diversion, and per capita recycling.
MSU is currently ranked 16th overall in the per capita classic category; however, the university leads the cardboard recycling subcategory, placing first overall in both 2024 and 2025. According to the data from week one, MSU remains at the top with 47,222 pounds of cardboard recycled per capita.
For students working at the MSU Recycling Center, the competition highlights the impact of their daily work. Supply chain management senior and Recycling Center student supervisor Logan Callison said strong results in the competition serve as motivation.
“The past three years, we've done really well. The past two, we got some banners hanging up there for some national championships,” Callison said. “ It's awesome to come together as a university, and be sustainable together, and really leave an impact on the Lansing area.”
MSU Recycling Center Director Christopher Hewitt attributed the university’s continued success in cardboard recycling to a process that has been refined over the past 35 years. Cardboard collected from campus recycling bins is transported to the Recycling Center, compressed into bales, weighed and shipped to manufacturers across Michigan, where it is repurposed into products such as cereal boxes.
Hewitt emphasized the benefits of cardboard recycling outside of the competition as well. Commercially, recycling generates revenue for the university that funds the recycling center and supports local small businesses that manufacture cardboard products. Environmentally, it diverts waste from landfills, which require land expansion once they reach capacity and can harm ecosystems and water sources.
“Landfills are not an infinite resource,” Hewitt said. “There's only so much capacity that a landfill can hold. And by diverting some 6 million pounds a year just from this facility alone, we are saving tons of cubic yardage in the landfill, helping extend its lifespan.”
The competition’s name change from RecycleMania to Campus Race for Zero Waste reflects a shift in focus from recycling alone to reducing waste production altogether. Alison Richardson, a Campus Race for Zero Waste board member, said waste reduction is a key priority.
“There's always demand for more, which one thing we want to work on is the circular economy, so that we can keep materials that have been created in circulation,” Richardson said.
