Carnegie Mellon University
Environment at CMU  ›  Recycling and Waste Management

Recycling and Waste Management

Carnegie Mellon has been collecting data on recycling and other diversion efforts since 1990 and expanded opportunities for waste diversion in that time. The diversion rate for FY24 was 22%, diverting more than 680 tons from the landfill.

chart of landfilled and diverted waste from FY91-FY24

chart of diversion rate from FY91-FY24

Chart of totals of specific materials diverted from landfill from FY91-FY24

What Goes Where?

Not sure what bin to use for your disposables? Visit the What Can be Recycled? and Food Waste Composting pages for answers.

Download a poster that highlights what goes where: CMU What Goes Where poster (pdf)

Campus Race to Zero Waste

The Campus Race to Zero Waste (CR2ZW) is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for colleges and universities to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. The competition runs annually in February and March.

CMU Fact Book

Data on recycling and waste management through 2017 can be found in the  CMU Fact Book.  Click on the campus space, facilities and services section. Contact us for more recent data.