By: Anastasia Benstead, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Students at Aquinas are probably aware of AQ’s sustainability initiatives. It is obvious by the waste stations placed around campus, and in the diversion rate races, but there is also probably a lot students do not know.
According to the 2025 results of the ‘Campus Race to Zero Waste’ competition hosted annually by the National Wildlife Federation, Aquinas College ranked 2nd in the nation for diversion rates entering week 4 of the competition, with a diversion rate of 63.6 per cent.
Diversion rates are measured by the “percentage of waste that we keep out of the landfill,” said Jessica Bowen, Executive director of the Center for Sustainability. “The goal is 90 percent waste diversion, once we reach 90 percent waste diversion, the Zero Waste International Alliance says we can call ourselves a zero waste campus.” Which of course is the ultimate goal of Aquinas College, and hence the reason for so many waste receptacles around campus, and the special collections bins in the dorms, and major buildings.
Bowen states that Aquinas is doing very well for itself, especially considering the limitations that come from being a small college. Originally Aquinas collected eight different categories of TerraCycle, “however we have limited human capital and time to put into that and limited finite resources too.” said Bowen. Now Aquinas collects only 3 different categories to aid with the sorting of waste, which is all done by hand by volunteers in the loading dock of Albertus.
“We used to upcycle [TerraCycle] all kinds of products like cheese wrappers, Brita water filters, glue sticks and many beauty products, but it just became too much,” said Bowen. While this might appear like Aquinas is cutting corners, it is actually to the benefit of the college. Roughly 90 percent of all of the waste sorted into TerraCycle fell into the 3 current categories Aquinas collects. Collection on campus of TerraCycle falls into the following categories: snack bags, candy bar wrappers and granola bar wrappers.
For members of campus who wish to divert their hard to dispose of waste, such as the products listed above no longer collected on campus, individuals are able to mail their waste to TerraCycle directly as long as it is properly labeled into one of their designated categories. For those interested, follow this link.
https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades
TerraCyle is an all too familiar name on campus, but what is it? “TerraCycle is a company,” said Bowen.“We often think of it as a waste stream, but TerraCycle is a company and they upcycle hard to recycle items.” Upcycling refers to the process of collecting materials and converting their materials into higher quality products. Conversely, “traditional recycling is downcycling, which means taking a product and making a less quality product out of those materials,” said Bowen.
Diversion rates are measured not only on a campus wide basis, the data sent to the National Wildlife Federation, but also by buildings. Dorms, classrooms and administration offices can track their own progress in diversion rates monthly. The data represents each locations’ diversion rate and if it has increased or decreased since the previous tabulation. The goal is not to create competition, “the purpose of those metrics is to show you how you are doing,” said Bowen. “That’s why we put up those posters to provide that feedback to hopefully create some behavior change.”
It takes the summation of individual actions to help Aquinas succeed in its race to zero waste.
Aquinas sorts its waste – Photo by Anastasia Benstead
The Saint 