Awareness & Events
To continue running and expanding our recycling program, we need your help! Recycling programs often suffer from significant contamination issues, which not only lower the quality and price of the recycled materials but make the jobs of Materials Recovery Facility workers much more difficult and can compromise their safety.
Education campaigns are instrumental in the success of the recycling program, and students are our first line of defense. Here in Louisiana, we do not accept as many materials as other states, and thus, it is important to familiarize yourself and teach your peers about what can and can't be recycled, see the list. There are recycling interior trash cans and exterior dumpsters stationed across the campus, so keep a lookout to dispose of your trash properly. Broken or improperly labeled recycling bins should be reported to the Facility
Management. To keep up-to-date on the most recent recycling information, you can follow XULA Green on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or the campus e-newsletter.
If you have an idea for a recycling education campaign or ways to improve our on-campus recycling, please contact the XULA Green, Office of Sustainability- We'd love to hear from you
Xavier University of Louisiana’s sustainability team, Xula Green, is excited to announce that we received an $8,000 Healthy Communities grant for recycling awareness and initiatives, from the Keep Louisiana Beautiful Foundation (KLB). “Keep Louisiana Beautiful, Inc. is the state's anti-litter and community improvement organization focused on education, enforcement, awareness and cleanups. Affiliated with Keep America Beautiful, Keep Louisiana Beautiful's mission is to promote personal, corporate and community responsibility for a clean and beautiful Louisiana. With a network of 40 affiliates in communities throughout the state, over 172,609 volunteers and participants work toward a clean and beautiful Louisiana.”
By winning the KLB grant, we are able to build on our mission to serve the global society. The grant will support our team in enhancing our current campus recycling program. Supporting the values that XULA Green uphold, the grant is used to specifically reduce campus litter and waste, educate on the concepts of recycling, reducing and reusing wastes, and inform students and the general public on environmental issues caused by waste pollution.
In addition to the KLB grant, Xavier University committed to becoming a University Affiliate in the program's first class. We joined the 2021/22 University Affiliate Class where our sustainability team undergoes waste management and auditing certification training, receives recycling and campus beautification support, and receives mentorship, and guidance from KLB, the University Sustainability Coalition and other Louisiana university sustainability departments.
Campus Race to Zero Waste (CR2ZW), formerly known as Recyclemania, is a nationwide university
competition and a tool that helps colleges and universities advance campus recycling and waste reduction
efforts. XULA participates in the annual competition involving colleges and universities across the US and
Canada. Not only is our yearly goal to perform better than the last, but to increase our school spirit while continually engaging and motivating the XULA community to reduce waste and increase reuse and recycling on Xavier's campus. The CR2ZW competition provides us with a national benchmarking tool to track our school’s waste minimization and recycling efforts against other campuses. Through CR2ZW we are able to further reduce our waste and lower our school’s environmental footprint.
During the 2021 Campus Race to Zero Waste Competition:
- 2.9 million students and staff were reached from more than 200 colleges and universities. link to: https://www.nwf.org/Latest-News/Press-Releases/2021/05-04-21-Campus-Race-To-Zero-Waste-2021
- 230 million plastic containers were kept out of the landfill.
- Campuses prevented the release of 30,669 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E) into the atmosphere, equivalent to preventing annual emissions from 6,463 cars.
- 25.8 million pounds of waste was donated, recycled and composted.
Each year, XULAGreen hosts a series of sustainable-themed events in the week around Earth Day. These events either help facilitate environmentally friendly behavior around campus or raise awareness about sustainability issues and initiatives. Through COVID, we were able to continue our Annual Earth Week tradition by hosting Earth Week semi-virtually, offering a series of online challenges, information webinars, as well as tree planting, a volunteer day in the Gumbo Garden and recycling games/activities on the University Center yard. We are excited to be able to host the events in person and to meet and connect with the next generation of environmental activists!
Occasionally, we will get a request from the CR2ZW organization to design a presentation on our recycling methods or activities. A couple is shown below.
In 2021, Xavier joined together with several other universities in Louisiana to host a panel addressing critical solutions to climate change. 2021 was an especially important year as it coincided with the development of the Governor's Climate Initiative Task Force, which will create progressive legislation to promote environmental justice and sustainability. The event was part of a global education initiative to solve climate change by 2030, involving multiple countries and all 50 states.