play, live, love, RECYCLE, sports

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

It is official and the results favour the idea that we could one day have a completely waste free campus. A couple of months back I blogged about the fact that we were building a new Sports Field and that a component of that sports field was going to be composed of recycled shoes. Well the rest of the project has now come to an end and the results for the total diversion of waste are now available.

First, there is the total waste diversion from the old field. Since the field is composed of artificial turf, we had to find a way to recycle it. There were 2 components - the turf itself, and the infill (the little rubber pellets that are used to give the field a bouncy feel (and absorb the shock of impact).

The old turf was turned into PVC pellets so it can be used to make more PVC products. The infill was collected and is being used to reinforce berms in high traffic areas. Total diversion for the old field is over 90%.

Second, the waste for the rest of the project. This includes things like packing, miscellaneous construction materials, etc... The project created 547 tonnes of waste with 473 tonnes being diverted from landfill. That means that 87% of the waste was recycled.

This news is kind of exciting for us because it brings us closer to becoming a zero waste campus. Projects like this, although small in comparison to some of our larger construction projects, help us establish a precedent for recycling. Construction is always hard for us to monitor at the University because most of it happens off site. But, ever so slowly the industry is becoming more and more green.

*bags of recycled infill from the Sports Field replacement project.

-jon

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com