The Office of Waste Management (OWM) strives to provide timely and efficient removal of solid waste generated at UMass Amherst, and, to process and dispose of these wastes in the least harmful way to the natural environment, the University community and the public.

We follow the Integrated Solid Waste Management [PDF] approach which holds that garbage is not a homogenous mass to be burned or buried and then forgotten. Instead, "garbage" consists of a heterogeneous spectrum of discarded materials and products each with specific characteristics and properties which make them more or less suitable for reuse, recycling , composting or disposal. ISWM asserts that the environment endures the least harm and receives the most benefit when garbage is reduced, reused, composted, incinerated with energy recovery and lastly put in the landfill.