As college and university communities seek to lessen the environmental footprint of campus operations, they employ structural/behavioral changes to reduce waste streams. Whether through instituting composting programs, limiting bottled water at campus concessions, co-generating campus electricity and heat, or recycling residence hall carpeting, people are implementing new strategies to reduce and reuse waste. Concurrently, those in the ESS disciplines are engaging students in research projects and teaching related content such as life cycle analyses, food supply chains, and carbon footprints. This symposium will explore how waste-related initiatives provide opportunities to engage students in learning. The goals of the symposium are to 1) highlight how those in the ESS community are utilizing campus waste streams in the curriculum, 2) examine the successes and failures of these approaches, and 3) discuss how we in the ESS community can further contribute to the mission of sustainability in higher education by turning campus trash into pedagogical treasure. We invite graduate students, campus operations leaders, and instructors to join us in sharing their experiences.