UCLA has a comprehensive recycling and waste management program and is pursuing eliminating single-use plastics on campus per both the UC Policy on Sustainable Practices, and UCLA’s own Single-Use Plastics Policy, which bans plastics to a degree past the UC wide policy. The University also addresses Zero Waste in the recent campus wide Sustainability Plan by outlining diversion and reduction goals, the waste section of which is linked above.
To reach our ambitious waste reduction and diversion goals, we need help from the entire UCLA community. This means taking daily, meaningful steps towards more sustainable options. If you have questions about what goes in the different bins, or how to recycle different materials, check out our FAQs and all of our resources throughout this webpage.
Current Projects and Initiatives
June 2024 marked the first year UCLA engaged in a large scale move out event to collect usable goods that would otherwise be disposed of. This way we can ensure more items have their life prolonged and both avoid the landfill, and help others who may need them.
Being the first year this program will be evolving as we work to scale it, you can find information about what went on last year at the Move Out Resources webpage. Once information for next year is set, you will be able to find drop off days at that link. Please make sure your usable furniture and other home goods don’t go to waste!
Partnerships
Contact us at zerowaste@ucla.edu if you wish to donate any materials to any of our partners.
Our Zero Waste team partners with the CPO Food Closet to provide meals to students who are experiencing food insecurity due to financial hardship, and in turn reducing food waste. With a text based service called Bruin Bites, campus community members can receive notifications about when free food is available. For details on how to donate to these efforts, check out the UCLA Food Recovery Implementation Guide.
Waste Data Reports and Plans
Below you will find graphs illustrating UCLA’s reduction in waste created overall and per person per day, and UCLA’s diversion rate since 2016 (when current UCOP goals were set). These graphs and the information are from the yearly sustainability reporting put out by UCOP, with information gathered from each campus. This diversion rate encompasses all streams onsite, whereas the Quarterly Waste Reports, linked below, are only the information from our hauler on our Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) streams of recycling, composting, and landfill.
- Waste Reports
- 2023-2024 UCLA UCOP Sustainability Report
- 2022-2023 UCLA UCOP Sustainability Report
- 2021-2022 Quarterly Waste Reports: Q3 | Q2 | Q1
- 2019-2021 FY Waste Report
Media and Awards
- UCLA Newsroom: UCLA developing policy to phase out single-use plastics
- UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative: How do we break our addiction to plastic?
- Athens Services and UCLA join to “Feed People, Not Landfills”
- UCLA Newsroom: UCLA turns student cast-offs into cash for a good cause