eWaste Recycling Drive 2/14-3/13

Recycle your electronic waste!

Don’t send your old electronics to the landfill! UofL’s Sustainability Council and the Cardinal eSports Team want to help you Trash the competition, not the planet! From Feb. 14th – March 13th, we have special collection points set up in the following locations:

1. BAB (1st floor lobby)
2. SAC (3rd Floor, beside W310 Student Affairs Office)
3. Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st Floor Student Study Area, SE corner)
4. HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind elevators) (426 W. Bloom St., 1st floor central hall by vending).

• There will also be a special Drive-up Drop-off Collection on Monday 3/4 from 8am-11am on the south side of the Clinical & Translational Research Building at UofL’s downtown Health Sciences Center (505 S Hancock St.), by the elevators for the 620 Garage. The contact for the Drive-up Drop-off is Skip Hurley (502) 599-6228.
  

Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of personal electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires.

Separate bins will also be available for recycling of any type of battery, lamps/bulbs, or ink/toner cartridges.

This special collection is for your own personal items.

Departmental eWaste and lab equipment can always be recycled and picked-up for free. Here’s how to get university property picked-up for reuse/recycling:
Step 1: One of the following forms must be completed for the e-scrap item(s) to be picked up. All forms are located at the Inventory Control/Surplus Property website:
1. A pick-up request for computer hard-drives and laptop computers must be submitted using the “Computing Device Surplus Certification” form.
2. All other electronic items with a UofL Property tag bar-code must be submitted on a “TRANOVER” form (regardless of value).
3. All other electronic items valued over $1000 must be submitted on a “TRANOVER” form.
4. All other electronic items valued under $1000 should be submitted on a “TRANUND” form.
Step 2: After your form has been submitted on-line and has been reviewed by the appropriate department, Physical Plant personnel will come to your location and pick up designated items for reuse or recycling.

Wipe Your Data!

Please be sure to keep your data secure by wiping the data from all your devices prior to dropping off items for recycling. The EPA provides guidance for how to do this on all types of devices here.

Checklist for disposing your items:

1. Verify that the item is included in the Items Accepted for Electronics Recycling list
2. If the device functions and powers on, prepare the item by:
   – Backing up important or sensitive data and information
   – Removing the battery (if removable)
   – Conducting a Hard Reset or Factory Reset on the device
3. Log out of all accounts associated with the device (i.e. email accounts, cloud storage accounts, social media accounts, etc.)
4. If you have not conducted a Hard Reset or Factory Reset for the device(s), refer to the following instructions according to the device manufacturer:
   – Wipe Your Android Phone: Settings > System > Advanced > Reset Options > Erase All Data (Factory Reset)
   – Wipe your iOS [Apple] Device: Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings
   – Wipe your Windows PC: Settings > Update and Security > Recover > Reset this PC > Get Started. Select Remove All Personal Files when prompted.
   – Wipe your Chromebook or Chrome Tablet: Settings > Advanced > Powerwash
   – Wipe your iMac or MacBook: Power up or restart the device. Once the device is booting up, hold down Option + Command + R until a spinning wheel appears on the screen. Release the Option + Command + R keys then select the option ‘Reinstall macOS’ and click ‘Continue’. Follow the on-screen instructions when asked to select main hard drive to be wiped.

Batteries

All battery types are accepted for recycling, including:

1. Alkaline (A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9-volt)
2. Lithium hydride, sealed (Li)
3. Nickel-cadmium, sealed (Ni-Cad)
4. Nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH)
5. Lead-acid, wet-celled (vehicle and golf cart type)
6. Lead batteries, sealed (Pb)
7. Mercury (Hg)

Lamps/Bulbs

The lighting wastes that can be dropped off for recycling include:

1. Fluorescent light tubes
2. Compact fluorescent bulbs, including U-tube and circular
3. High-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, such as high pressure sodium and mercury vapor
4. Ultra-violet (UV) lamps
5. Halogen and xenon lamps

Ecolympics 2024

This is a special event of Ecolympics 2024 and the Campus Race To Zero Waste – January 28th to March 23rd. A friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL will compete to reduce waste, increase recycling & composting, and raise conservation awareness across all three campuses! Keep up with the Cards progress at the Campus Race website.

Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable  or submit them through our online form to win the Grand Prize, or one of eight fabulous weekly prize baskets!

Prizes:

• Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics 2024, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a themed gift basket!
• Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics 2024 will take home our grand prize basket!
• Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form throughout February & March to be entered into the competition! New winners will be picked each week! Enter as often as you can!

Win with sustainability during Ecolympics 2024!

Two fun sustainability competitions to get you engaged in saving our one green planet! Facebook Event.

Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable  or submit them through our online form to win the Grand Prize, or one of eight fabulous weekly prize baskets!

Campus Race To Zero Waste! – January 28 – March 23, 2024
A friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL will compete to reduce waste, increase recycling & composting, and raise conservation awareness across all three campuses! Keep up with the Cards progress at the Campus Race website.

• REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE! Help the Cards to victory by avoiding disposables (bring your own mug, bottle, plate, etc.), donating useful stuff to the UofL Free Store instead of throwing it away, and fully utilizing UofL’s amazingly easy, single-stream recycling system that lets you recycle everything in the same bin, everywhere on campus: all types of plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, and glass! Details on what you can recycle at UofL here.
• COMPOST! Turn trash into treasure just by composting your food scraps and soiled paper products in the compost bins at the Garden Commons next to the Baptist Center and the Urban & Public Affairs Garden behind Bettie Johnson Hall. Request a compost caddy for your room through our online request form! If it came from a plant, we want to compost it: fruit & vegetable wastes/peels/rinds/seeds, baked goods, grains, tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, and all kinds of soiled paper products (tissues, towels, napkins, plates, cups, etc.). We are always collecting food wastes for composting from The Ville Grill, SAC Marketplace, and other campus dining locations and will be adding those numbers to UofL’s organics recycling totals in the Campus Race to Zero Waste.
• RECYCLE E-WASTE! Don’t send your old electronics to the landfill! We will have special collection points set up in the following locations Feb. 14 – March 13:
       BAB (1st floor lobby)
       SAC W310
       Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st floor Study Area, SE corner)
       HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind elevators)
  There will also be a special Drive-up Drop-off Collection on Monday 3/4 from 8am-11am outside of the Clinical & Translational Research Building at HSC (505 S Hancock St.). Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires. are partnering with UofL’s eSports Club to help you Trash the competition, not the planet! Full details here.

Residence Hall Drawdown! – February 5-25, 2024
Live on campus? Win with conservation! Inspired by Project Drawdown, UofL residence halls will compete among each other to see who can reduce electricity use the most over three weeks. The winning hall will earn a pizza party, sponsored by RHA! All you have to do is stop wasting energy! Turn off lights, fans, space heaters, TVs, game consoles, etc.; unplug anything you’re not actively using (especially empty refrigerators); skip the elevator for the stairs; close windows tightly; wait until you have a full load to do laundry & wash with cold water; dry clothes on a rack/line; take shorter showers or shower with solar power at the SRC; etc.

• Keep track of each hall’s progress with UofL’s Building Dashboard, where you can see how much electricity your hall is using and learn how you can conserve! Halls in the competition include:

1. Billy Minardi Hall
2. Community Park (real-time data!)
3. Bettie Johnson Hall
4. Kurz Hall (real-time data!)
5. Louisville Hall (real-time data!)
6. Unitas Hall (real-time data!)
7. University Tower Apartments (UTA)
8. Belknap Village North
9. Belknap Village South

Prizes:

• Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics 2024, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a themed gift basket!
• Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics 2024 will take home our grand prize basket! This year’s grand prize is provided by our zero-waste friends at Peace of the Earth Refillery on Bardstown Rd. The Grand Prize basket contains a bunch of sustainable, green goodies and refillable containers, as well as a gift card.
• Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form throughout February & March to be entered into the competition! New winners will be picked each week! Enter as often as you can!

Ride with UofL in Cycle September and Win Twice!

UofL’s Sustainability Council and Get Healthy Now encourage you to saddle up and ride for Team UofL during Cycle September – The Global Bike Challenge September 1-30, 2023! Compete to win prizes while also being rewarded with joy, fitness, community & cleaner air. Log your rides for fun, transportation, or fitness & you could win!

Register for Cycle September as an individual to be entered to win fabulous national prizes! Join Team UofL on Strava to log your rides and encourage/compete against your peers for the UofL Grand Prize.

Your miles, days cycled, and bike commutes will all qualify you for the grand prize of a $200 voucher to a local bike shop! Students, faculty, and staff are all welcome to compete.

Check out our online resources for UofL Bicyclists – with handy maps, videos, and tips for getting around town care-free and car-free!

WATCH VIDEO RECORDING of our August 24th HRTalks Wellness: Cycle September Info Session.

Bike commutes can also be logged in the Cards Commuter Challenge to increase your chances of winning!

Cards Commuter Challenge 2023

August 28 – September 30, 2023. University-wide
UofL wants you to save money, burn calories, put an end to pollution, and win prizes…all by simply choosing to get to campus in a new way! Record your trips on Cardinal Directions throughout the Cards Commuter Challenge (August 28 – September 30) and each week you’ll have the chance to win one of the $50 weekly prizes or the $250 Grand Prize! Any trip by means other than driving alone increases your chances of winning!

Step 1: Join the Challenge online!

• Register for free on the Cardinal Directions trip-finding and carpool-matching platform
• Be sure to join either the Students at UofL network or Employees at UofL network. You must be in one of those networks to win.

Step 2: Challenge yourself (and your friends!) to get to campus differently!
Try these life-affirming alternatives to the expense, road-rage, pollution, and parking hassles of driving alone:

• BUS: Ride any TARC route free with UofL ID (just swipe your card as you board – any time, anywhere).
• CARDpool: Organize your own carpool with friends, family, colleagues, or classmates; or find rides & offer rides online through Cardinal Directions.
• WALK, SKATE, or BIKE: Get your workout just by getting where you need to go under your own power! If you don’t have your own bike, borrow one free from UofL Bikeshare or join LouVelo citywide bikeshare for just $15/mo with your @louisville.edu address (membership gets you unlimited trips of up to one hour without any additional charges). Be sure to also log your bike trips during Cycle September as an individual to be entered to win fabulous national prizes! And join Team UofL on Strava to log your rides and encourage/compete against your peers for the UofL Grand Prize. Simply log your trips by bicycle for fun, fitness, or transportation from September 1-30, 2023. Your miles and days cycled will qualify you for the grand prize of a $200 voucher to a local bike shop!
• VANPOOL: Employees can get in on a vanpool, get your ride home guaranteed, or enter to win additional monthly prizes with Every Commute Counts.
• SKIP THE COMMUTE: Work or study from home for maximum convenience, savings, and safety!

* NOTE: Though certainly better than driving, getting around via lazy, coal-powered electric scooters does not qualify for this Challenge. Skip the dirty electricity and use your muscles to qualify!

Explore all of UofL’s Sustainable Transportation Options.

Step 3: Log your trips to win!
The only way to be in the running for prizes is to log your commute trips online with Cardinal Directions.

Connect with us, trash-talk, and post about your commute on social media @UofLSustainable.

And be sure to join us for our weekly themed events to get you engaged in the Challenge:

• Campus History Walking Tour with Tom Owen
  Wednesday, Aug. 30th, 5:30pm, starts on Ekstrom Library’s Quad porch
• Mayor’s Hike, Bike & Paddle
  Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4th, 8am-noon, Waterfront Park Great Lawn
  hikebikeandpaddle.org
• Car-free trip at noon from Belknap Campus to:
  UofL Day at that Gray Street Farmers’ Market
  Thursday, Sept. 14th, 10:30am‒1:30pm
  Health Sciences Center, 634 S Jackson St (NE corner of Jackson & Gray)
  Bike Trip: Cyclists will leave from the North Info Center at noon for a flat, easy ride on bike lanes. Bring your own bike, or borrow one from UofL Bikeshare at the SRC, or from LouVelo. Justin Mog will be leading the bike ride.
  Bus Trip: Bus riders should gather at noon at the north-bound bus stop on Floyd Street across from the SAC at Ulmer Stadium for a quick ride on TARC Route 28. Swipe your UofL ID as you board the bus for a free trip! Rachel Mudd will be leading the bus trip.
• Skate Night!
  Tuesday, Sept. 19th, 4-6pm, Meet up at Humanities Quad
  As a part of the Cards Commuter Challenge, the UofL Sustainability Council is hosting this fun roll for skaters of all types. Just skateboard, rollerblade, or roller skate on over to the Quad for a fun night of skating together! Be sure to log your skate on Cardinal Directions to be entered to win prizes! The Skate Night will be lead by EcoReps Intern, Chelsea Erbacher.
• Carpool Week!
  Week of Sept. 25th, Details TBA

UofL finishes in the top 10 of the 2023 Campus Race To Zero Waste

by Mog, Justin — last modified May 16, 2023 01:45 AM — History

The Final Results are in for the 2023 Campus Race To Zero Waste, and the University of Louisville finished in the top 10 during the eight-week friendly competition among over 100 schools from across the continent held January 29th through March 25th! The final results show that:

• In the Diversion category, UofL finished 9th out of 91 schools with a diversion rate of 59.815%.
• In the Food Waste organics category, UofL finished 22nd out of 82 schools with 68.24 points.
• In the Per Capita Classic, UofL finished 55th out of 107 schools with a recycling rate of 6.994 lbs/person.
• In the E-waste category, UofL finished 25th out of 157 schools by collecting 1838 lbs. of e-waste for recycling (or 0.07 lbs/person)
•  In terms of Waste Minimization, UofL finished in the middle of the pack with 19.55 lbs/person of total waste generated.

UofL’s Sustainability Council encouraged students, faculty, and staff to engage in the Campus Race by making it a part of Ecolympics 2023 – Two fun sustainability competitions to get you engaged in saving our one green planet! The campus community was encouraged to post their sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable, or submit them through our online form to win the Grand Prize hybrid bicycle, or one of eight fabulous weekly prize baskets!

Campus Race To Zero Waste! – January 29 – March 25, 2023
A friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL will compete to reduce waste, increase recycling & composting, and raise conservation awareness across all three campuses! Keep up with the Cards progress at the Campus Race website.

• REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE! Help the Cards to victory by avoiding disposables (bring your own mug, bottle, plate, etc.), donating useful stuff to the UofL Free Store instead of throwing it away, and fully utilizing UofL’s amazingly easy, single-stream recycling system that lets you recycle everything in the same bin, everywhere on campus: all types of plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, and glass! Details on what you can recycle at UofL here.
• COMPOST! We will be collecting food wastes for composting from The Ville Grill, SAC Marketplace, and other campus dining locations and adding those numbers to UofL’s organics recycling totals. You can also compost your food scraps and soiled paper products in the compost bins at the Garden Commons and the Urban & Public Affairs Horticulture Zone. If it came from a plant, we want to compost it: fruit & vegetable wastes/peels/rinds/seeds, baked goods, grains, tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, and all kinds of soiled paper products (tissues, towels, napkins, plates, cups, etc.).
• RECYCLE E-WASTE! Don’t send your old electronics to the landfill! We will have special collection points set up in the following locations Feb. 15 – March 15:
       BAB (1st floor lobby)
       SAC (3rd Floor, beside W310 Student Affairs Office)
       Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st Floor Student Study Area, SE corner)
       HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind elevators)
  Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires. We are partnering with UofL’s eSports Club to help you Trash the competition, not the planet! Full details here.

SEE ALSO:

Caroline Ferro wins Ecolympics 2023 (UofL Sustainability News, March 28, 2023)

Unitas Tower wins the Ecolympics Drawdown!!

Congratulations to residents of Unitas Tower for winning this year’s Ecolympics Drawdown competition by reducing electricity use by 10.8% over the last three weeks! They will win a house party sponsored by RHA!

Honorable mention goes to the residents of other halls that were able to reduce their consumption from February 6-26: Billy Minardi (9.9%), Bettie Johnson (4.5%), Louisville Hall (4%), Belknap Village South (3.8%), and Belknap Village North (1%).

Ride the wave of conservation and you can still inspire your friends and win prizes in Ecolympics through March 25th – unplug, turn off, take stairs, line dry clothes, do laundry in cold water, etc. Just share your green actions on social media at tag @UofLSustainable  or submit them through our online form to win the Grand Prize, or one of eight fabulous weekly prize baskets!

Congrats to our first four weekly Ecolympics winners!

Week 1: Alyssa Burton, a Student Assistant in Health Management & Systems Science, was the first weekly winner in UofL’s Ecolympics 2023. We were inspired by the astounding nine sustainable actions she shared: washing laundry in cold water, commuting by TARC, visiting the Free Store, using reusable shopping bags, bringing lunch in reusable container instead of takeout, recycling, creating a Sustainable Living guide, using a reusable water bottle, and volunteering for Louisville Grows! She won our UofL Dining prize pack!

Week 2: Hailey Mattingly, a GTA in Political Science, won Ecolympics week 2 by inspiring us all with her green actions, including composting food scraps at home, carpooling with colleagues, recycling, & donating unwanted items. She took home our sustainable cinema prize pack!

Week 3: Anna Dittman, a first-year sustainability major, won Ecolympics week 3 by reusing old cards and magazines for making valentines, using reusable grocery bags, recycling, carpooling with friends and refilling at UofL’s water filling stations! She won our health & wellness prize pack.

Week 4: Patty Payette, Find Your Fit Director in the Delphi Center, won last week’s WestRock Recycling prize pack! She organized an e-waste recycling drive in her neighborhood and delivered all of the items to UofL, keeping toxins out of the landfill and useful materials in a circular economy. Join Patty! RECYCLE E-WASTE! through 3/15 in special collection bins available at:
BAB (1st floor lobby)
     SAC (3rd Floor, beside W310 Student Affairs Office)
     Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st Floor Student Study Area, SE corner)
     HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind elevators)
Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires. Separate bins will also be available for recycling of any type of battery, lamps/bulbs, or ink/toner cartridges. We are partnering with UofL’s eSports Club to help you Trash the competition, not the planet! Full details here.

Win with Sustainability during Ecolympics 2023!!

January 29th to March 25th
Two fun sustainability competitions to get you engaged in saving our one green planet!

Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable  or submit them through our online form to win the Grand Prize, or one of eight fabulous weekly prize baskets!

Campus Race To Zero Waste! – January 29 – March 25, 2023
A friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL will compete to reduce waste, increase recycling & composting, and raise conservation awareness across all three campuses! Keep up with the Cards progress at the Campus Race website.

• REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE! Help the Cards to victory by avoiding disposables (bring your own mug, bottle, plate, etc.), donating useful stuff to the UofL Free Store instead of throwing it away, and fully utilizing UofL’s amazingly easy, single-stream recycling system that lets you recycle everything in the same bin, everywhere on campus: all types of plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, and glass! Details on what you can recycle at UofL here.
• COMPOST! We will be collecting food wastes for composting from The Ville Grill, SAC Marketplace, and other campus dining locations and adding those numbers to UofL’s organics recycling totals. You can also compost your food scraps and soiled paper products in the compost bins at the Garden Commons and the Urban & Public Affairs Horticulture Zone. If it came from a plant, we want to compost it: fruit & vegetable wastes/peels/rinds/seeds, baked goods, grains, tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, and all kinds of soiled paper products (tissues, towels, napkins, plates, cups, etc.).
• RECYCLE E-WASTE! Don’t send your old electronics to the landfill! We will have special collection points set up in the following locations Feb. 15 – March 15:
       BAB (1st floor lobby)
       SAC (3rd Floor, beside W310 Student Affairs Office)
       Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st Floor Student Study Area, SE corner)
       HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind elevators)
  Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires. We are partnering with UofL’s eSports Club to help you Trash the competition, not the planet!

Residence Hall Drawdown! – February 6-26, 2023
Live on campus? Win with conservation! Inspired by Project Drawdown, UofL residence halls will compete among each other to see who can reduce electricity use the most over three weeks. The winning hall will earn a pizza party, sponsored by RHA! All you have to do is stop wasting energy! Turn off lights/TVs/computers; unplug anything you’re not actively using; skip the elevator for the stairs; close windows tightly; wait until you have a full load to do laundry & wash with cold water; dry clothes on a rack/line; take shorter showers or shower with solar power at the SRC; etc.

• Keep track of each hall’s progress with UofL’s Building Dashboard, where you can see how much electricity your hall is using and learn how you can conserve! Halls in the competition include:

1. Bettie Johnson Hall
2. Billy Minardi Hall
3. Community Park (real-time data!)
4. Kurz Hall (real-time data!)
5. Louisville Hall (real-time data!)
6. Unitas Hall (real-time data!)
7. University Tower Apartments (UTA)
8. Belknap Village North
9. Belknap Village South

Prizes:

• Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics 2023, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a themed gift basket!
• Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics 2023 will take home our grand prize – a Specialized Crossroads hybrid bicycle perfect for urban exploring!
• Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form throughout February & March to be entered into the competition! New winners will be picked each week! Enter as often as you can!

Last Chance to Win with Conservation in Ecolympics 2022!

This is the final week of Ecolympics 2022 and your last chance to get entered into the raffle for the Grand Prize or the final weekly prize basket…and we’ve saved the best for last! This is week we are giving away a sustainable kitchen basket! Share with us your sustainable acts for a chance to win! You can tag us or DM us on Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, or Facebook @uoflsustainable. OR you can enter your act through our online form! Entries must include a photo of you participating in the act or proof of the action. There’s no cap on entries so keep those actions coming! The more actions you send us, the more chances you’ll have at winning a prize! Winners will be announced next Monday, March 28th.

Take action & win through March 26th! Reduce, reuse, recycle, or compost; ditch the car and try free transit with your UofL ID, or bike to campus, or walk, or setup a carpool through Cardinal Directions; take shorter showers, or enjoy guilt-free solar hot showers at the SRC; shut things off and unplug unused devices like empty refrigerators, chargers, etc.!

Prizes:

• Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics 2022, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a themed gift basket (Gardening, Wellness, Local Coffee/Tea, Entertainment, Kitchen, Books, Outdoor, & Travel)!
• Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics 2022 will ride home on a Green Raleigh M-20 Mountain Bike (or another bike of your preference)!
• Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form throughout February & March to be entered into the competition! New winners will be picked each week! Enter as often as you can!

Congratulations to our Week 7 Ecolympics winner, Colten Ingram!

Here’s what Colten had to say about their submission: “I use trash, found and recyclable items to make terrain pieces for table top role playing and skirmish games like DND and Star Wars Legion. I use a lot of thin cardboard, plastic lids and containers, styrofoam from take out boxes and fast food toys. What doesn’t get used for gaming is recycled to reduce waste.”

Congratulations to our other recent weekly prize basket winners:

Week 6 Ecolympics winner, Ethan Johnson, shared a great idea for propagating celery, bikes to campus, and is our Bike Mechanic Intern here at the Sustainability Council. He wants to encourage everyone to bike now that the weather is warming up. Thanks for your hard work, Ethan!

The Week 5 winner was Fine Arts professor, Rachel Singel, who makes paper from invasive species!

Here’s what Rachel had to say about her sustainable actions: “I have been making paper with invasive plants and working to use more sustainable methods to make my prints, such as using water-based inks to avoid using solvents. I have also been teaching how to make paper with invasives to students and will be teaching a workshop to the the Student Sustainability Coalition on March 11th.”

Don’t forget to submit your sustainable actions during this FINAL week of Ecolympics!

Bettie Johnson Hall wins Dorm Drawdown and first four weekly winners of Ecolympics set the bar!

All hail the residents of Bettie Johnson Hall who won the Dorm Drawdown by reducing their electricity use by 8% from February 7-27! They edged out Community Park (1.5% reduction) and Billy Minardi (0.6% reduction) to take the gold medal. They’ll enjoy a pizza party, and you can still win one of the remaining weekly prize baskets or the grand prize! Take action, share about it, and you could win through March 26th!

The Sustainability Council’s annual campus engagement challenge, Ecolympics 2022, is at its half-way mark. All students, staff, & faculty are encouraged to take action throughout February & March. Post about your green actions on social media, tag @UofLsustainable, or submit them via our online form to be entered to win one of 8 weekly themed prize baskets or the grand prize bicycle!

This is the excuse you’ve been waiting for to stretch yourself to try something new: air-dry laundry, compost, bike, walk, carpool, take the stairs or bus, shut off computers & lights, unplug, shop and eat local, reduce, reuse, recycle, work for justice, etc.

All Hail Our First Four Winners!

Chemistry GRA, Richard Lumata, was the first of eight weekly Ecolympics winners. We were inspired by his highly creative entry, describing the beautiful art he makes out of discarded packaging and objects, natural materials, and ground eggshells. He’s won the plants & seeds prize basket. Be like Richard. Share your sustainable actions, inspire your friends, and you could win! Check out Richard’s sustainable art on social media @UofLSustainable.

REACH Student Ambassador Emily Nuñez won our 2nd week prize basket with a whopping 10 sustainable actions, including using reusable bags, bottles, and towels; unplugging electronics; and reusing grease in bird food)! Way to go, Emily!

The 3rd week was won by Philosophy professor, Brian Barnes, who has managed UofL’s Community Composting Project since 2010, and is always encouraging others to consider the advantages of composting organic wastes rather than landfilling them!

Congratulations to Education professor David Royer for winning the 4th week’s camping & outdoors prize basket! David keeps a set of reusable silverware (including chopsticks and metal straws) and a cloth napkin in his desk for lunch; and a second set for loaning when he eats with colleagues so no one has to use disposable utensils.

These types of actions have allowed UofL to dominate the national Campus Race To Zero Waste!, where we are currently in 10th place (out of 75 schools reporting) in the Diversion category, with an astounding landfill diversion rate of just over 60%! The competition runs through March 26th and our special E-waste Recycling Drive runs through March 16th!

Don’t send your old electronics to the landfill! We have special collection points set up in the SAC W310, Duthie Center (1st Floor Student Study Area), HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind the elevator), Ekstrom Library (Lobby at Starbucks entrance, small items only), and Urban & Public Affairs (426 W. Bloom St., 1st floor central hall by vending). Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires. We are partnering with UofL’s eSports Club to help you Trash the competition, not the planet!

You could be the next weekly winner or win the grand prize by posting your actions & tagging @UofLsustainable, or submitting online.

eWaste Recycling – Trash the competition, not the planet!

Recycle your electronic waste!

Don’t send your old electronics to the landfill! UofL’s Sustainability Council and the Cardinal eSports Team want to help you Trash the competition, not the planet! From Feb. 16th – March 16th, we will have special collection points set up in the following locations:

1. SAC (3rd Floor, beside W310 Student Affairs Office)
2. Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st Floor Student Study Area, SE corner)
3. HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind the elevator)
4. Ekstrom Library (1st floor, small items only)
5. Urban & Public Affairs (426 W. Bloom St., 1st floor central hall by vending).

Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of personal electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires.

Separate bins will also be available for recycling of any type of battery, lamps/bulbs, or ink/toner cartridges.

This special collection is for your own personal items.

Departmental eWaste and lab equipment can always be recycled and picked-up for free. Here’s how to get university property picked-up for reuse/recycling:
Step 1: One of the following forms must be completed for the e-scrap item(s) to be picked up. All forms are located at the Inventory Control/Surplus Property website:
1. A pick-up request for computer hard-drives and laptop computers must be submitted using the “Computing Device Surplus Certification” form.
2. All other electronic items with a UofL Property tag bar-code must be submitted on a “TRANOVER” form (regardless of value).
3. All other electronic items valued over $1000 must be submitted on a “TRANOVER” form.
4. All other electronic items valued under $1000 should be submitted on a “TRANUND” form.
Step 2: After your form has been submitted on-line and has been reviewed by the appropriate department, Physical Plant personnel will come to your location and pick up designated items for reuse or recycling.

Please be sure to keep your data secure by wiping the data from all your devices prior to dropping off items for recycling. The EPA provides guidance for how to do this on all types of devices here.

Batteries

All battery types are accepted, including:

1. Alkaline (A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9-volt)
2. Lithium hydride, sealed (Li)
3. Nickel-cadmium, sealed (Ni-Cad)
4. Nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH)
5. Lead-acid, wet-celled (vehicle and golf cart type)
6. Lead batteries, sealed (Pb)
7. Mercury (Hg)

Lamps/Bulbs

The lighting wastes that can be dropped off for recycling include:

1. Fluorescent light tubes
2. Compact fluorescent bulbs, including U-tube and circular
3. High-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, such as high pressure sodium and mercury vapor
4. Ultra-violet (UV) lamps
5. Halogen and xenon lamps

Ecolympics 2022

This is a special event as part of the broader Ecolympics 2022 and Campus Race To Zero Waste! – January 31 – March 26, 2022
A friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL will compete to reduce waste, increase recycling & composting, and raise conservation awareness across all three campuses! Keep up with the Cards progress at the Campus Race website.

Prizes:

• Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics 2022, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a curated gift basket!
• Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics 2022 will ride home on a Green Raleigh M-20 Mountain Bike (or another bike of your preference)!
• Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form throughout February & March to be entered into the competition! New winners will be picked each week! Enter as often as you can!

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