Materials Matters - MIT's waste and recycling data

MIT’s waste and recycling data is a key performance indicator of progress toward our 2030 goal of reducing campus waste by 30 percent compared to 2019 baseline totals. Our waste reduction goal was established as the result of a call-to-action in Fast Forward: MIT’s Climate Action Plan for the Decade, and factors in state and city policies. 

The visualization linked below presents annual waste data from 2010-2023 and a waste diversion rate marker for weights from MIT’s large waste streams and specialty hard-to-recycle items. The diversion rate is the percentage of material not sent to incineration or landfill and includes recycling, food waste, yard waste, hard-to-recycle items, and other diversion (blue line plotted against the right axis). The hard-to-recycle items include: clothing, tires, wood pallets, mattresses, books, e-waste, Styrofoam and metal. Regulated medical waste streams are not included in this data dashboard.
 

Click here to see definitions of terms used in this dashboard.