The Zero Waste Mason Civic Fellows engage the George Mason community about waste and waste systems while supporting awareness about university projects and volunteer opportunities during their tabling events!

Visit the Fellows’ table during Campus Sustainability Month this October and Earth Month (April) to learn more about opportunities for support and collaboration on our Zero Waste Mason goal of reaching 90% or higher waste diversion!

Patriot Packout (PPO) is a community-based program to address basic needs insecurity while reducing waste at George Mason University. PPO serves as a university resource for donations, preventing useful items from ending up in the trash. PPO redistributes donated items for free to George Mason Patriots, on-campus resources, and off-campus nonprofit partners by hosting year-round Free Store events, activities, and skill-sharing workshops.

PPO is organized by members of the Patriot Packout Planning Committee. The PPO Planning Committee is comprised of more than 20 George Mason community members who work together to plan and execute PPO's Spring Move-Out Donation Collection Initiative along with pop-up events throughout the academic year.  All members of the George Mason community can join the committee!

George Mason began composting at the Southside Dining Hall in 2018. As of 2026, George Mason's Composting program includes 14 sites: all residential dining hall kitchens on the Fairfax Campus, the Starbucks Northern Neck location, select Bigbelly Solar Initiative stations, the Innovation Hall pilot site, the Katherine G. Johnson Hall pilot site, and the Paper Towel Composting pilot site at the Facilities and Campus Operations Complex.

Additionally, the Greenhouse and Gardens program operates 2 on campus ‘backyard’ composting piles at the Potomac Heights Vegetable Garden and Innovation Food Forest where all George MasonPatriots can drop-off their fruit and vegetable scraps for composting.

To advance ‘industrial’ composting access (i.e., commercial composting processes that can accept all types of food scraps like meat, dairy, etc., as well as third-party certified compostable items), George Mason now provides 6 total public compost drop-off locations on the Fairfax Campus as part of its Bigbelly Solar zero waste station initiative: 

• SUB I Patio 
• HUB Patio 
• Merten Hall Patio (Panda Express) 
• Merten Hall Patio (Manhattan Pizza) 
• Starbucks Northern Neck Patio (Original pilot site, includes indoor compost bin) 

To learn more about how to compost on campus, please review our campus guidance here: go.gmu.edu/zerowaste! 

• Alpha Kappa Chi (AKX) is a co-educational organization that promotes professional development, community activism and brotherhood of member individuals in preparation for and commitment to environmentally conscious lifestyles.You can contact AKX to learn how to join! 

• Student Environmental Justice Alliance (SEJA) campaigns for the protection of the environment and its inhabitants through advocacy, activism, and education. SEJA members seek to create a diverse movement within the Mason community to make tangible improvements in our environment both locally and in the state of Virginia, and to empower students to take action for a healthy planet for our future. 

• George Mason’s Student Government is a permanent standing entity representing the entire student body. They advocate for the interests of their fellow peers, meet with the Administration regularly to address students’ issues and concerns, educate the student body about the state of the institution, and represent each student’s interests. Sign up for Student Government’s Maintain Mason campus clean-ups here!

• George Mason’s Staff Senate are a body of peers – classified and non-student wage employees – at George Mason University. The Zero Waste Mason Civic Fellows partner with Staff Senate and their Environmental Justice and Sustainability Subcommittee to support sustainable behavior change initiatives on campus. George Mason Patriots can join Staff Senate’s Greener Mason Community MS Teams group and all George Mason employees can participate in the Office Supply Swap channel to support reuse and redistribution on campus. 

• Mason Dining is committed to sustainability and providing healthy and fresh selections for the Mason community.  You can learn more about Mason Dining’s waste reduction efforts, including composting and certified compostable purchasing, by visiting their Better Tomorrow webpage here!