Each year, the Sustainability Champion Awards recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to sustainability at the University of Kentucky. At the 2025 Sustainability Showcase, Ryan Lark, UK Zero Waste Specialist, was recognized as...
Kova Jones
Jennifer Allen
Olivia SmithCategory - Become a zero-waste campus
Vision: Foster a culture of waste reduction, diversion, and circularity by adopting innovative practices and infrastructure to eliminate waste across all areas of campus life.
From waste to wonder: Narwhal art debuts at Kentucky Children’s Hospital
What do you get when you mix a mountain of medical waste, a splash of imagination and a pinch of pure magic? At Kentucky Children’s Hospital, the answer is two cheerful narwhals, stitched from syringe...
Carlie Laughlin
Sip, recycle, repeat: UK Recycling to tackle coffee cup waste on campus
n an effort to boost recycling rates on campus, University of Kentucky Recycling, a department within Facilities Management, is launching a coffee cup recycling awareness campaign in partnership with UK Dining. This...
Ella Sides
Campus Woods gives UK trees new life
The University of Kentucky is home to over twelve thousand trees, representing a variety of the 120 tree species native to our state, such as walnuts, yellow-poplar, bur oaks, hickory, and ash trees. When a tree is...
UK researchers develop greener, more sustainable ways to recover metals from electronic waste
As electronic waste (e-waste) piles up globally, researchers at the University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment and the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering are...
UK HealthCare recycles thousands of stored x-rays
In July 2024, University of Kentucky implemented a new healthcare enterprise policy allowing protected health information (PHI) to be destroyed following HIPAA-compliant guidelines if the film was created more than 30...
UK celebrates America Recycles Day
Nov. 15 is America Recycles Day, a day to celebrate the impact and importance of recycling. University of Kentucky Recycling will participate in this national celebration with six installations across campus that...
Katherine Johnson
UK Recycling introduces mini hanging landfill containers
UK Recycling is committed to becoming a zero-waste campus by 2030, meaning that 90% of all discarded waste will be diverted from the landfill by recycling, composting, donating, or other means. To reduce the amount of...
Introducing UK Recycling’s Waste Wizard
UK Recycling is excited to announce a new addition to our website, the Waste Wizard! With this new tool, learning about what is recyclable at UK is quicker and easier than ever before. The Waste Wizard functions as a...
The Reuse Resource Map is Updated and Ready!
Hello! I’m Dot Shaw, and I am a rising junior attending Lafayette High School in the Pre-Engineering and SCAPA for Visual Art programs. I was selected to participate in the UK Summer Youth Program where I began an...
UK Recycling’s Give & Go Donation Stations return for 7th year
University of Kentucky Recycling, in partnership with Goodwill Industries of the Bluegrass, is continuing to offer their Give and Go Donation Stations for the seventh year. The stations, set up in the lobby of...
Introducing UK Recycling’s Hydration Station
As we move towards a more environmentally friendly conscious future, the University of Kentucky is proud to announce the introduction of a portable hydration station on campus, a move aimed at reducing waste from...
UK Recycling to host sixth annual Thrift Shop Pop-Up
UK Recycling is excited to announce its sixth annual Thrift Shop Pop-Up in partnership with Student Organizations and Activities and Wildcat Wardrobe! The Pop-Up shop promotes reuse on campus, helping UK to achieve our...
UK Recycling Launches Oscar AI Rewards System
By: Ryan Lark UK Recycling has introduced a rewards program to incentivize use of their Oscar AI waste sorting system. Last Spring, UK Recycling unveiled Oscar, a technology which identifies the user’s waste and...
AcademicsBecome a zero-waste campusBehind The ScenesMake the pursuit of sustainability an integral part of the student experience
Fabricating play: the Big Blue Bench comes to Cornerstone
The Big Blue Bench (figure 1) is a furniture piece and public art installation that serves as a prototype to demonstrate the reuse of plastic waste as building material (figure 2). The product is one result of a...
