Recycling at Tufts

Recycling at Tufts began in 1990 as a student-run initiative and is now a comprehensive program jointly managed by the Office of Sustainability and Facilities Services. The Office of Sustainability is responsible for ensuring the Tufts community is reducing waste and recycling properly through goal setting, data collection and tracking, education, communications, the move-out and move-in Trash to Treasures program, interior waste infrastructures, compost, reuse, and specialty recycling streams. Facilities Services is responsible for most operational components, including contracting with our custodial service and waste hauler, servicing waste bins, dumpsters, and removing waste from campus. For a more detailed history of recycling at Tufts, click here.

Tufts strives to be at the forefront of innovations that promote the wise use and conservation of resources. We envision a future for waste at Tufts wherein each member of the Tufts community considers the impact of purchasing and disposing of an object and chooses the option that best supports a world without waste. This idea, also known as cradle-to-cradle, means taking into account the entire life cycle of a product and its components—from the extraction of raw materials, processing, manufacturing, transportation and distribution, use and purpose, repair and maintenance, reuse potential, and ultimately, recycling and disposal.

In 2013, President Anthony Monaco established the Campus Sustainability Council. In 2013, the Council set a series of goals for sustainability in campus operations, including waste reduction. From this came the goal to reduce waste by 3 percent a year, on average, through source reduction, waste management strategies, and behavior change. For a comprehensive list of objectives and supporting strategies, please read the Campus Sustainability Council Report. In 2019, additional goals and agenda items were created to enhance the recycling program, including to decrease contamination rate (the percentage of items in the recycling stream that don’t belong there), to increase diversion rate (the percentage of waste that we divert from landfills and incinerators), and to expand the program. For Tufts’ recycling data and information about how we are doing in meeting these goals, contact us at recycle@tufts.edu.