Ayodeji Oluwalana

Ayodeji (Ayo) Oluwalana is currently the Waste Reduction and Recycling Program Manager for Penn State and housed in the Office of Physical Plant department. Prior to coming to Penn State, he was the Recycling Program Manager for Iowa State University and shortly before that, he was the Sustainability Coordinator at Western Colorado University. With over 11 years’ experience, he has worked majorly on several zero waste projects in higher education with sustainable materials management and circular economy concepts in mind. Ayo is a practical-oriented individual using the "systems thinking" approach to address waste and equity issues. He has designed and implemented projects that have helped advance upcycling and sustainable materials management concepts specifically in struggling US sub-urban and rural communities with limited waste management infrastructure. One of such is the development of a project that reused plastic bottles heading for the landfill to build a greenhouse to help local farmers extend their growing season in the winter in Gunnison, Colorado. He was one of the main contributors to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Sustainable Materials Management- Vision for Iowa” Think Tank group white paper to create a sustainable materials management vision for the State of Iowa as a statewide guide for future materials management related issues. His research interests include sustainable materials management, circular economy, climate change, life cycle analysis, material flow analysis and industrial metabolism. He is currently a board member of the College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC), Advisory board member for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), Advisory Council Member for Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) TRUE Zero Waste and board member of the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania (PROP). He was formerly a board member of Iowa Recycling Association. He was recently named one of the 2025 AASHE Fellows for his exemplary leadership in advancing sustainability in Higher Education. Because of his passion to make impact, he recently founded Circular Environmental Solutions LLC which focuses on helping small businesses and rural municipalities/communities integrate circularity into every aspect of its operations that results in a resilient and sustainable system. Ayo was a victim of climate change due to flooding in his home country Nigeria and his life goal - “My existence must bring solutions to humanity”.