New ‘Zero Waste’ report at Montana State highlights campus sustainability initiatives

BOZEMAN - Montana State University's incoming freshmen arrive each fall with belongings such as TVs, fans and electronics that are often wrapped in plastic and cushioned with Styrofoam in their original cardboard cartons. While disposing of packaging in the nearest recycling bin might seem like a simple task, MSU's first Zero Waste coordinator Garrett Wright understands there's a little more to it.

"If people throw all the Styrofoam and plastic back in the cardboard box, now it's not recyclable - it's contaminated. And if there's too much contamination, an entire 10-yard roll-off (dumpster) could just be tossed in the trash," explained Wright, whose responsibilities in MSU's Office of Sustainability include ensuring that recyclable waste on campus doesn't end up in a landfill.

In advance of Move-In 2025, Wright's team collaborated with MSU's Residence Hall Association, resident advisers and Move-In volunteers to help new Bobcats dispose of their packing materials properly.

"I'm super, super proud to say that we had 0% cardboard contamination for all of the 2025 Move-In, and we also reduced trash campus-wide by 21,000 pounds in the month of August over the year before," he said.

The project was one of the first overseen by Wright, a 2024 alumnus who has served as MSU's first Zero Waste coordinator since last July. He is building on the university's 17-year effort to divert waste from landfills, which began in 2009 with a student-led recycling movement that has been strongly supported by MSU Facilities Services and the Office of Sustainability since 2012.

In 2021, the university set a goal in its campus Sustainability Framework to become a Zero Waste Campus by 2035, meaning that by then, it will divert from landfills at least 90% of the waste generated on campus. As the program coordinator, Wright recently completed a Zero Waste Report for fiscal year 2025, recapping the university's annual waste diversion rates since 2009 - from 2.69% to 28.5% in 2025 - and introducing an action plan for continued progress toward the 2035 goal.

The three primary strategies identified in the report include fostering a campus-wide culture shift through education and outreach events, such as the Move-In recycling campaign; promoting the purchase of sustainable products, like the compostable materials widely used by MSU Culinary Services across campus; and increasing infrastructure so that everyone at MSU has the resources available to make "a zero-waste decision." Examples of such infrastructure include the recently installed compost bins in Herrick Hall and Marsh Laboratory.

Those strategies have already met with measurable success. In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, which began in July, MSU recycled and composted 124,000 more pounds of material and sent 85,274 fewer pounds to the landfill than it did in fiscal year 2025, and the average diversion rate through March has risen to 32.5%, Wright said.

He has been assisted by student interns for the past two semesters, including Madeline Ayala, a December 2025 graduate who worked with the Residence Hall Association last fall on a project to help on-campus students develop a recycling habit. Starting in the Johnstone Center residence hall, Ayala helped equip each room with a personal-size bin and sticker itemizing recyclable items. The bins are meant to remind students that some of what they are tempted to discard in the trash may be recyclable.

"The whole goal is to allow for students to make the easier choice to recycle with a bin in their room," Wright said, noting that the Johnstone pilot project may be expanded to other residence halls, in line with the "culture shift" tenet of the three-point plan.

To keep track of the percentage of MSU's total waste that is recycled, composted or landfilled, Wright tracks figures provided by the university's solid waste vendors. He now shares those figures monthly with different campus entities, such as housing or sports facilities, so that they can track the recycling rates at residence halls or the weight of products recycled during a football game.

As Wright observed during Move-In, zero-waste awareness across campus is increasing.

"This is a university - it's about education. That increased enthusiasm about being part of something is awesome to see, and that's how you create long-lasting change," Wright said.

He invites offices, buildings or student groups interested in learning more about Zero Waste initiatives to reach out for more information.

"It's not just our office promoting zero waste - it's an MSU community initiative that reaches every corner of campus," he said.