The annual Campus Race to Zero Waste competition released its results and rankings for 2025, with American University making the Top 10 in three different categories. Campus Race to Zero Waste is an eight-week nationwide competition in February and March that challenges colleges and universities to reduce waste and increase diversion rates. 

This year, AU ranked third in the Food Organics category (composting), seventh in the Game Day Basketball category, and ninth in Per Capita Recycling for the game day. Overall, the university ranked 29^th in Diversion and 58^th in Per Capita Recycling.

The different categories track a variety of waste reduction efforts at AU. The Food Organics category examines the food waste produced and diverted from landfill across campus, either through composting or through recovering to redistribute. The Game Day Basketball category assesses recycling and waste minimization efforts at a single game (in this case, the Feb. 10 Annual Sustainability Awareness Game, in partnership with AU Men’s Basketball).

The Diversion category is determined by the percentage of the total waste stream that gets composted or recycled, and Per Capita Recycling divides total recycling weights by the number of students, staff, and faculty on our campus.

"Participating in the competition creates a unique opportunity to generate excitement across campus about recycling and composting while also allowing us to take a deep dive into the data each week to find opportunities to adjust behind-the-scenes operations and try new engagement programs. These changes have led to AU doubling our diversion rate since last year!" said Megan Litke, Director of Sustainability.

Campus Race to Zero Waste, which began as RecycleMania in 2001, has now grown to include colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and Canada, recycling and composting 1,064 million pounds of waste and preventing the release of nearly 1.62 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is comparable to removing more than 335,000 passenger vehicles from the road for one year. 

Through the years, the competition has increasingly taken a more comprehensive approach to helping colleges and universities find pathways towards zero waste – when 90-plus percent is diverted from trash – on campus. Zero waste now accounts for everything from increasing recycling and food organics as a ratio of waste to reducing consumption, food waste and single-use plastics. 

Sustainability Manager Anna Parse Johnson said, “The Campus Race to Zero Waste competition period is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s energizing to see us improve in the different waste reduction categories over last year’s results. I hope we can carry the competitive energy into the 2026 Campus Race to Zero Waste and keep moving up the ranks.”

The Campus Race to Zero Waste competition is managed by the National Wildlife Federation and governed by RecycleMania Inc.