Ohio State University has more than successful athletic teams to cheer about these days. The University recently announced that its one hundred thousand seat sports stadium has been designated a zero-waste facility.

The success is credited to strong working partnership between various departments across the university – a real team effort – to ensure that all administrators, staff, students, and visitors know how to play by the rules when it comes to recycling and waste diversion.  At a recent game against rival, Purdue University, the attendance was over one hundred and five thousand people with an achieved landfill diversion rate of close to ninety five percent. Not content with a not-quite-perfect record, Ohio performed even better a few weeks later during a match-up against the University of Illinois – with a similar attendance rate, the recycling amount moved up to a little over ninety eight percent! The success is credit to improving the diversion for food waste – a very common trash bin item at sporting events.

While zero-waste state is often defined as achieving a ninety percent diversion rate, Ohio State realized that it could continue to cost costs if it surpassed that number. Most other zero-waste sports stadiums are considerably smaller that Ohio State’s but they served as a model to work off of as the University designed a plan that would work for them.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Setting up a recycling system at your business might seem like a daunting task – but when you take it one step at a time, you’ll see your diversion rate improve and your costs drop!