The Ohio State University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

RecycleMania is a national competition in which universities compete against each other to increase recycling and promote its awareness. At Ohio State, recycling education and awareness on campus takes place through marketing, outreach and programs directed to both students and university employees. In 2015, outside of the standard outreach efforts, Ohio State tested two new outreach programs: Caught Green Handed (CGH) and a pilot program to compost coffee grounds and food scraps at several campus cafes.

CGH was an outreach event in which 200 individuals who were “caught” recycling were given a small prize and had their action posted on social media. During the composting pilot program, 1,434 pounds of organic waste from two Dining Services facilities were diverted from a landfill and composted to be repurposed into mulch. Ultimately, Ohio State placed tenth in the nation diverting over 1,000,000 pounds of materials from the landfill during the 8-week competition.

Dump & Run is an annual program that focuses on educating students about the ease and practicality of donating items for reuse diverting them from the landfill. The overall developmental goal of the program is to create habits in students to pause prior to throwing something away and ask themselves if there is an alternative use of the item to someone else. The program itself is in two phases: 1) Education, marketing and collect items (Spring) and 2) Public sale and charitable donations (Fall). Ohio State educates and encourages participation in the program by all students through presentations made during Spring to residence hall councils and other student organizations. Additionally Dump & Run provides an opportunity for student organizations to earn funds by providing volunteer labor. Finally, there is a significant outreach component to the surrounding community in items donated, participation in the sale and the donation of post-sale items and cash earned by the sale to local charities.

Each year, an estimated four to five tons of materials are diverted from the landfill through this program. Students participating in the first phase of the program (education, marketing and collection) learn facts about Reduce, Reuse and Recycling and developing the mental habit of thinking prior to sending an item to the landfill as well as life habit of donating items that can be reused. Students participating in the second phase of the program (public sale and charitable donations) are able to directly benefit from purchasing items at a steep discount and likewise develop the habit of donating items to others. Finally the program is open to the public and is a positive outreach to our community as well. In the fall of 2015, the items that were not sold were donated to Goodwill Columbus with an estimated valued at $2,352.