What is Circular UGA?
The goal is simple: Build a better Georgia through a culture of sustainability, circularity, and waste reduction.
UGA students, faculty, and staff will:
- Think before we buy and maximize the value of our resources through circular materials management.
- Build partnerships to innovate circular solutions that strengthen Georgia’s economy.
- Create circular systems that starve landfills and promote thriving, both now and in the future, through inspired teaching, research, service, and operations.
Featured Programs
Teaching
- Dr. Peggy Brickman‘s Honors Biology students empty the Trail Creek Trash Trap and measure their personal plastic use.
- Dr. Amanda Rugenski‘s Ecology Practicum students piloted paper towel composting in campus buildings to help create the new campus-wide standard for zero waste infrastructure.
- Dr. Jenna Jambeck‘s Circularity in Cities students conduct Circularity Assessment Protocols to design circular economies for UGA and communities around the globe.
Research
- The New Materials Institute is changing a paradigm to proactive material management, eliminating waste before it begins.
- The Circularity Informatics Lab partners with cities, nonprofits, and local leaders to redesign systems that create waste and reimagine take-make-waste economies into circular ones.
- The Textile Recycling Studio infuses sustainable consumerism into fashion merchandising to create closed loops for clothing and textiles.
Engagement & Service
- The student-run Swap Shop, UGA’s free on-campus thrift store, provides direct opportunities for the UGA community to share clothing and other essentials.
- UGA Housing offers programming to help new students reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, and get involved in their community.
- Campus Kitchen recovers 1,000’s of pounds of nutritious food for distribution to community members experiencing food insecurity.
Campus Operations
- The Sustainable Science – Green Labs Program helps UGA researchers reduce resource use while tackling society’s most pressing challenges.
- UGA Dining Services integrates innovative AI technology to reduce food waste while creating healthy meals.
- The Surplus Marketplace created by UGA Asset Management, allows UGA departments to “shop” for reused supplies and equipment at UGA free of charge.
How do you keep it circular?
Circular UGA is an interdisciplinary experiential learning initiative, modeled after successes of Watershed UGA. Faculty and students partner with staff practitioners to design and implement sustainable solutions to real challenges. Through focusing our collective efforts on one big idea, we can create meaningful and beneficial change.
- UGA faculty provide tangible experiential learning opportunities for students.
- UGA staff collaborate to address pressing waste-related challenges on campus.
- Students apply disciplinary depth and interdisciplinary innovation to develop sustainable solutions.
The Circular UGA steering committee – comprised of interdisciplinary faculty, staff, and students – curates opportunities for the UGA community to create positive change.
Want to get involved?
Students
- Apply for a circularity-focused Sustainability Internship
- Submit a circularity-focused Campus Sustainability Grant proposal
- Engage your student organization to implement circularity and zero waste practices in your events and club activities.
Faculty
- Incorporate a circularity project or module into your course syllabus.
- Partner with a UGA staff member to apply classroom learning to real-world challenges on campus.
- Participate in UGA Green Labs Waste Diversion programs.
Staff
- Collaborate with faculty and students to develop innovative solutions to current sustainability and waste reduction challenges in your unit.
- Commit to host zero waste events for your department.
- Apply to participate in the Sustainability Leadership Program and implement a circularity-focused project within your area of influence.
Anyone on campus:
- Attend a Circular UGA workshop or event.
- Email [email protected] to inquire how your class, department, or student organization can best support a Circular UGA.
