female student eating lunch at picnic table on campus

Waste-Free Westminster

The Waste-Free Westminster initiative began when Rosanise Odell (Honors ’18) decided to lead the initiative to move Westminster towards a zero-waste future after touring a local waste facility and observing the wasteful lifestyles people lead. Her work has continued to impact the community through a variety of student-led initiatives on campus.

Waste-Free Workshops

Waste-free workshops are designed to educate the campus community about waste reduction. Students lead workshops on topics like zero-waste grocery shopping, repurposing household items, making your own low-waste products, and more. The Environmental Center’s Facebook page lists events for upcoming workshops.

Westminster Thrift Collective

The Environmental Center hosts a student-run pop-up thrift store several times per semester, which allows Westminster students to shop for thrifted goods on campus. Donations of clothing and home goods are accepted in the Environmental Center office the Bassis Center. 

Reusable Tableware Checkout

The Environmental Center offers free, reusable plates, cups, bowls, and silverware for events to help you skip disposables and reduce your event’s carbon footprint.

Request A Waste-Free Event Kit

Recycling on Campus

Westminster is committed to sustainability and making recycling easy for the campus community. Blue recycling bins are located on each floor of every building on campus. And, recycling is co-mingled, meaning plastic, paper, cardboard, and metals go in the same bin.

Glass cannot go into the blue bins, but glass recycling is available in the Shaw Student Center and outside the northwest corner of Meldrum Science Center. Hard to recycle items such as batteries and cell phones can be recycled in the Shaw Student Center, across from the Dean of Students Office. To learn more about recycling, including what items are recyclable in Salt Lake City, visit the Salt Lake City government’s list of co-mingled recyclables.

If you want a small recycling bin for your office, you can request one. However, remember that personal recycling bins will still need to be emptied it into one of the large recycling bins in your building

Request A Recycling Bin


In 2016, Rosanise Odell (Honors ’18) recruited a friend and lived completely waste-free for 2 months. This paved the way for Waste-Free Westminster, a comprehensive plan to move Westminster toward a zero-waste future and one of the most successful student-led environmental efforts.

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Rosanise Odell

 

Rosanise Odell

Honors '18