For the fourth straight year, UC Berkeley topped the Pac-12 in the annual Zero Waste Competition, put on by the league.
In announcing the results this week, the Pac-12 lauded Berkeley for diverting 95.7 percent of the waste generated during the Feb. 24 men’s basketball game against Washington. That included the diversion of landfill garbage, cardboard and mix paper recycling, bottles and cans, compost and food/recovery donations.
Three other Pac-12 universities won in subcategories.
Cal Zero Waste worked with Savers and UC Berkeley’s ReUse club to host a clothing donation drive, where participants received a free t-shirt in exchange for gently used clothing. In total, 100 pounds of clothing were donated by basketball fans and 2,651 reused t-shirts were given away. In addition, 36 elementary student volunteers from Hesperian Elementary School participated as “trash-talkers” and engaged one-on-one with fans about how to properly sort their waste at the game.
Cal Zero Waste also partnered with Learfield, Bank of the West, Savers, UC Berkeley’s ReUse club, Hesperian Elementary School, Build Your Own Garment, Brita and others to host a pre-game event with the themes zero waste and reuse.