The DUMP 2011

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

It's that time of the year again. As all the students head home for the summer there is a mountain of stuff left behind to prove that "I was here".

Two years ago the Office of Campus Sustainability collected approximately 1.7 tonnes of stuff; last year it was about 2.3 tonnes; this year... who knows. One thing is for certain though, there will always be more stuff.

The Dump and Run (yeah I am know... who named this thing anyways) is technically an annual campus move out event. In reality it is really a story of perspectives an realities.

Perspective #1 - The Student (in rez)

It is the end of the year, I have 5 exams and 2 papers to hand in. My last exam is on the second last day of the month. I have to leave on the first of May by noon and there are still 2 parties to go to and too many friends to say goodbye to. On my last day in rez my parents arrive and I have exactly 15 mins to pack everything into the car before we leave. I can't take everything...

Perspective #2 - Housing Services

There are over 3000 students living in rez. The last day that they can stay in the residences is May 1st and in less than 1 week we have to every apartment cleaned out and ready to rent as hotel units for the summer crowd. That means we have to clean out about 600 apartments a day. We don't have enough time to sort through every half-filled apartment, we barely have time to get them cleaned.

Perspective #3 - Katimavik

Every day starting in mid April Brigitte and Jon make us go to every residence and pick up boxes of donations. We put up posters, go door to door speaking with residents, and write blogs and tweets about how people can donate. By the time we get to the end of April, we have to do about 2 pick-ups a day. After the Dump and Run is over we spend the entire day sorting through donations and packaging them for the various charities.

Perspective #4 - Student Sustainability Coordinators

After my exams are finished I start working for the Office of Campus Sustainability full-time. I call up charities and find out what they need most. Brigitte and Jon say that we only give stuff that people can use right away (emergency supplies they call them). After the Dump and Run is over I will spend my days weighing all the donations, sorting everything into boxes, and then delivering it to charities.

Perspective #5 - The Office of Campus Sustainability

Every year just as RecyceMania ends we get ready for the Dump and Run. We throw everything we have at it, all our volunteers and all our employees. We reserve the basement of LeBlanc and fill it up with donations we collect from the residences; sometimes we even do a little dumpster diving. Every laundry card we find we use to clean the clothes we collect. Every textbook we sell back we use the money to recognize our volunteers. And everything we can't donate to a charity in need we give back to the campus community through the Free Store.

-jon

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

IT'S BACK !!!

Photo credit: Unknown

Yes! Examinations are coming to a close and because I am not studying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I am ecstatic that second year is almost over and that summer will soon officially begin.

For those of you in residence, you may be relieved that your parents are on their way to collect you and bring you to your hometown OR they are coming to move you into another apartment for the summer months. Either way, the process of moving is stressful especially if you do not have a parent with a truck. Once the backseat gets filled, your father will start complaining about all the clothing you have accumulated over the semester and will start to threaten you with garbage bags. If this happens, and you are forced to leave some things behind, tell your father to put those garbage bags away and that Dump and Run will gladly take your stuff.

We’re collecting basically everything in decent condition: your half empty cleaning supplies, gently worn clean clothing, books, kitchenware, etc. The Sustainability Office will pick these things up and sort through it all; sending what it can to local charities and the rest is used in our infamous free stores.

On the topic of REUSING, May brings Great Glebe Garage sales as well as flowers. I’ve been told it’s quite the event, spanning 10 blocks of the Glebe neighbourhood. Not only does this encourage the reuse of objects rather than throwing them away- but some of the proceeds are given to the Ottawa Food bank, encouraging social sustainability in our local community. Simply jump on the 1 or 7 bus on May 28th and they will take you to the heart of Glebe. Walking, Biking or Public Transport is encouraged due to limited parking availability and to keep streets safe during this busy time. For more information, click here

REDUCE, REUSE and then Recycle.

-merissa

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Are you ready to GGGAAARRRRDDDDEEENNNN?

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

I cannot overstate this enough, PEOPLE REALLY WANT TO GARDEN!

I have received an endless flood of emails from enthusiastic gardeners looking for a plot on campus. I suppose this all started last year when we dramatically increased the garden plot offerings on campus. We surged from about 8 plots to about 50.

There were a couple of problems for sure last year. First, we didn't get the garden going until July, about a month later then when everyone typically starts seeding. On top of that there was the possibility that the land would eventually be taken away for another development. And of course we had never managed a garden of that size so everything was a new experience.

Of course some dude named Murphy showed up and we were told that the garden land was going to be developed for the CAPEA project. No one was really surprised though, we all knew that there was a possibility of that happening. But the community didn't give up and dozens of successful garden plots were harvested.

But that was last summer and this is now. Over the year we had numerous requests for plots from students and faculty members. We even spoke with a few profs that wanted to do some research plots (wild pollinators and things of that nature).

So we needed to find some new space. We ran a poll on our Fan Page and the resounding choice was the Colony By Building roof (it should be noted that some people did did for "in Allan Rock's office" too... maybe not a bad idea). We had a meeting with the administrators of the building and they were having none of that (the space is used for summer campus). So we took a walk around campus and looked for new spaces.

So we are proposing a plan to get 50 plots again but nothing is certain yet. We are thinking of a mix of mobile plots (like McGill has at their School of Architecture) and some plots long King Edward again. At any rate when everything comes together we are going to need your help for a big gardening day. And if you are interested in a plot you can contact the Garden Coordinator for more info.

-jon

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Why I'm Furious #4

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

Consider, for a moment, the average day of the average office worker...the desks that must accommodate him...the wheelie chairs he must sit in...the counters he must splay things on...the phones he must answer...the cabinets he must put files in...the cupboards he must open....Have the picture? That's what's needed to sustain 1 office worker. Now let's do some multiplication.

• How many office workers are there per office?
• How many offices are there per floor?
• How many floors are there per building?
• How many buildings are there per district?
• How many districts are there per city?
• How many cities are there on the Earth?

Granted, the numbers vary a lot from to city-to-city to district-to-district to building-to-building to floor-to-floor to office-to-office to office-worker-to-office-worker. But multiplying seven numbers together, regardless of how small they are originally, is usually going to have a huge result. Considering the fact that 25 cities alone house 1/3 of the world population, and most people living in highly dense cities work some sort of desk-job... Well, I can guarantee you that those numbers are NOT small and that they most definitely ARE going to have a VERY HUGE result.

There is a lot of furniture in the world....

On Friday Shredder and I went to the 3rd floor of the MacDonald building. 1 floor of 1 building of 1 district of 1 city, among MANY. We asked Brigette what we were doing there.

"We're recycling the furniture"

I look through the offices. The chairs are some of the comfiest I've ever sat in; The tables are some of the coolest I've ever seen.

"Wow! Most of this stuff must be brand new!"

"Yep. Most of it's not even a year old"

"...So...why is it being moved?" I expected a reasonable answer. I was horribly disappointed.

"It's the end of the semester, so the floor is completely refurnishing"

I should be happy, you say, that it's being recycled and not thrown out. I am. In the enviro-world you have to count your victories.

But I can't help thinking about all those chairs, and all those tables, and all those cabinets, and all those shelves, in all those offices, in all those floors, in all those buildings, in all those districts, in all those cities all over the world that must do similar 'refurbishing'. And how most of them, unlike the University of Ottawa, probably DON'T have people like Brigette and Jon who tirelessly insist on protecting perfectly good furniture from the landfill, and probably DON'T have a conviniently nearby outdated, unused, and huge makeshift warehouse with which to store all that furniture in.

I don't have any data to give you about how much furniture we waste in a year; it'd be impossible to track something like that. I'm quite aware, however, of why it's going to waste: it's considered 'tacky'. Why get free furniture when you can get a matching set of Leather La-Z-Boy Recliners at the Brick on sale for only $1299.99?

The University of Ottawa has furnished the entire Katimahouse - A few months ago we picked up our second fridge - for free.

So maybe it's just me, but it seems that people who prefer to waste time, money, resources, and furniture over recycling should probably take a long hard look at themselves before they begin to throw around words like "tact"

-Annux

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Sustainable Studying

Photo credit: unknown

Chances are your exam period is split into a few sections of intense studying, stressing, no sleep, and lots of energy drinks versus sleeping all day to catch up those crazy few days. I went through all of that several times, and I wish that I knew what I do today to go through that period again and do it right (for my body!)

Here are a few facts for the students studying for that A in Biology, and for the average person who is wondering why they might always tired (either way, I was definitely wrong about a couple of questions!):

Q: A good night’s sleep can improve memory and boost creativity. True or false?

TRUE: Recent research shows that sleep actually strengthens, reorganizes, and restructures our memories. While we sleep we hold on to the most emotional parts of our memories.

Subjects were shown a scene with an emotional object such as a car wreck. After a full night’s sleep, subjects were more likely to recall the car wreck (the emotional object) rather than a palm tree in the background.

During sleep the areas of our brain that govern emotion and memory consolidation are at work. Researchers hypothesize that this nighttime brain activity may be what helps us to develop creative new ideas.

Q: Staying up late doesn’t harm our health as much as pulling an all-nighter. True or false?

FALSE: In a recent study on rats, researchers restricted the animals’ sleep to four hours a night for five nights. The effect on the rats’ brains was similar to the effect of acute total sleep deprivation, what we experience when we pull an all-nighter.

We assume that we can always catch up on sleep, but researchers caution that a lack of sleep can be harmful. Even mild sleep restriction for a couple of nights can detrimentally affect a person’s ability to perform cognitive tasks, such as work-related tasks or driving.

When researchers measured the rats’ brain waves, they discovered that slow wave activity increased even while the rats were awake, indicating a need for sleep.

Research has also shown that restricted sleep can increase our resistance to insulin, which can increase our risk of developing diabetes.

Q: The number of hours we sleep has no effect on our weight. True or false?

TRUE and FALSE: If we want to lose body fat, researchers tell us we need to get a good night’s sleep. In a small study, 10 women were put on a 1,450-calorie-a-day diet for 14 days and slept 8.5 hours a night. During this period, they lost 6.6 pounds of weight, made up of 3.1 pounds of fat and 3.3 pounds of fat-free body mass.

For another 14 days, caloric restriction was the same, but subjects slept for 5.5 hours a night. Weight loss was identical in both periods. However, during the period of restricted sleep, the women lost 1.3 pounds of fat and 5.3 pounds of fat-free body mass.

Adequate sleep also helped control the dieters’ hunger by maintaining low levels of the hormone ghrelin that triggers feelings of hunger. (These facts were taken out of the Alive magazine, April 2011 edition)

Good luck with exams, and GET YOUR SLEEP!

-brigitte

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Why I'm Furious #3

Photo Credit: Jonathan Rausseo

Despite being almost 50 years old in origin, 'Freeganism' is not a very well known philosophy. It's a way of life in which people attempt to eliminate their negative environmental and economic impact on the world by living only off of, well, garbage. If Jimmy dislikes his sandwich and decides to throw it in the trash, Bill can take that opportunity to indulge on Jimmy's half eaten 'waste-food' and eat that sandwich himself. By eating what would have been garbage anyway, Bill ate a meal that didn't require production AND he saved something from the landfill. A Sandwich saved is a sandwich earned.

"They eat garbage?! That's disgusting!!!"

If that food was a half-eaten Jimmy-slobber sandwich, I would agree with you. If that food was infested with mold and disease and decay, I would agree with you. If that food was actually inedible, I would agree with you. Freeganism would just be the nice way of saying 'rat mimicry'. But like that quiche I garbage once upon a dinner, a lot of our 'waste' food is just the result of high consumer demand.

FORTY PERCENT of the produced food in the US (Sorry, I couldn't find any reputable Canadian statistics) is thrown in the trash (Source). We've been struggling with an economy issue for the last 2 years, yet we're content to spend 590 bucks a year PER PERSON on food we end up throwing in the garbage. Every year NINETY SIX BILLION POUNDS of food are thrown away in the US. About ONE PERCENT of that food waste is composted, and the rest gets tossed in the landfill, where it produces copious amounts of methane as it attempts to decompose.

Thats a lot of food. Thats a lot of waste. Thats a lot of methane.

"But how is it possible that we throw out THAT much? 2/5ths of what I plan to put in my stomach gets put in the trash? Preposterous. If it was edible, I ate it"

If you've seen what I've seen in the university garbages over the past few Katima-months, you wouldn't be so sure; Pounds upon pounds upon pounds of still-wrapped-in-plastic day old bread. Hundreds of thousands of 'bruised' fruits and vegetables. Entire 12" Subway sandwiches (yes, that's plural). Unopened, untouched bottles of Coka-cola, Pepsi, Vitamin-water, and juice. I found a cook struggling to push a garbage bin to the curb.

"Looks heavy! Do you need help?"

"Yeah, thanks" I help push. It must weigh 200 pounds

"What the hell is in this??"

"Potatoes"

"What!! Why are you throwing out so much!?! What's wrong with them??"

"Nothings wrong with them. The cafeteria's closed for the day! We have no more use for them."

I was shocked and appalled. Naturally the premature Freegan in me grabbed a big container and shoveled as many potatoes into it as I could. He was right: The potatoes, the 200 hundred pounds of potatoes being sent to the landfill, were delicious and completely edible. The cafeteria would wheel the exact same bin of potatoes the next day. And the next day. And every day after that.

Before you look at Freegans with disgust, take a stroll past the dumpsters of your local Walmart or Loblaws and try to imagine the same amount of waste in perfectly edible food being thrown out day after day after day.

So tell me: Who's the disgusting one?

-Annux

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

What Happened to the Environment?

Okay, I might be jumping the gun (ahead of the French debate) but what happened to the environment. It wasn't even brought up once in the Leader's Debate yesterday. Come on!

Last time the debates happened the environment was one of the biggest issues, if not the biggest. Almost every economic stimulus package from other countries around the world included a significant investment in green technology and resource efficiency. Not in Canada.

I was really hoping that there would be a lively debate about the environment, hell I would even settled for a passing comment about a platform promise... but nothing? Okay, in all fairness, there was mention about Bill C-30 and how quickly it was killed. But is that it? What about the fisheries, what about the oil sands, what about our food security, what about our climate change obligations?

I am crossing my fingers in the hopes that they will pick up this question tonight in the French debate. I am not the type of person that likes to choose sides or tell people what to do. I believe that there are many options available. But I am afraid that if Canada doesn't do something we will be left behind as the rest of the world moves forward.

Here at the University of Ottawa, we have made environmental sustainability an important issue for the foreseeable future. The Vision 2020 Strategic Plan for the university identifies sustainability as one of our core pillars (check out the preliminary report and send in your comments). Rather than pitting the economy against the environment, we have taken the stance that the two can mutually re-enforce one another.

Anyways, I won't try to bog you down with details or bore you with rhetoric; the only thing I will say is make sure that your candidates are talking about the environment this election. Hold them to account and let them know that the environment hasn't let our minds.

-jon

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Mes deux mois sans déchets

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

Mon deux mois sans déchets ont pris leur fin officiellement le 2 avril, et c’était une expérience formidable. J’ai recommencé à faire presque toute ma nourriture moi-même, j’ai appris que presque tous les produits que j’utilise à tous les jours sont disponible en vrac, et plus important encore; j’ai appris que si tu as ton propre contenant, ils te vendront le produit dans ton propre contenant! (il suffit de demander).

Mes découvertes préférées lors de mon défi sans déchets sont; l’extrait de vanille ou d’amandes est disponible en vrac au Market Organics (Rue York dans le Marché By), les petits gâteaux organiques (et végétaliens) sont bien meilleurs que les petits gâteaux que j’avais goûté auparavant, et oui, il existe de la soie dentaire compostable!

Les déchets que je n’ai pas pu éviter sont les pansements (je me suis très bien coupée lors de mon défi!), et les gommettes sur certains fruits et légumes. J’ai une toute petite boîte à bijoux qui contient mes quelques déchets.

Vivre ce défi pendant deux mois a complètement changé ma perspective sur la production de déchets; chaque déchet produit est à cause d’un choix que j’ai dû faire. Il y a toujours un produit alternatif aux produits qui sont emballés, il suffit de le trouver! Je vais faire un effort particulier de mettre les recettes que j’ai utilisé pour me faire à manger sans déchets sur notre site web : www.durable.uottawa.ca.

Avez-vous des anecdotes à partager? Envoyez-moi un courriel : bmorin@uottawa.ca

-brigitte

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Why I'm Furious #2

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

I've become a seasoned recycling veteran. I know what's made up of what, what it breaks down into, how it gets sorted, and what happens to it. On an industrial scale, it's actually amazing. The automatic recycling systems set in place in major Canadian cities is really impressive (check out this video), and we're more than equipped with what we need to recycle any and all plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, food, glass.

When you really think about it, thats really all our waste is made up of, yet there's MOUNDS of garbage being produced every year. Why? Because the recycling industry doesn't matter if people don't recycle.

For the last 3 weeks, all the bags recovered from the recycling stations in the Cafeteria have been thrown into the garbage. The staff has decided to give up on sorting them because the bins are so contaminated you can't even tell what they were supposed to house! Shredder and I have been collecting hands-on data from the cafeteria since Friday, physically going through the bins every 30 minutes, sorting it, and recording our findings.

Some of it's reasonable. How are you supposed to know coffee cups can't be recycled? How are you supposed to know that your cafeteria buys biodegradable cutlery if they don't advertise it? How are you supposed to know soiled or greasy paper is still compostable? How are you supposed to know milk cartons are Metal/Plastic/Glass Containers? Even I didn't know that before

But people don't even make an effort. A girl right in front of me about to throw a plastic container from her tray in the compost - "Whoa whoa, thats not compostable. Actually, everything besides the plastic container on your plate is compostable."

She motions to throw the container in the plastic

"No no, that's only for plastic bottles"

"Whatever" She throws the container in the compost, her compostable cutlery and food in the Metal/Plastic/Glass, and her soaking wet compostable napkins in the mixed paper

"Whoa whoa whoa, that was all wrong"

"Whatever"

I wish I could say it was an isolated case. These are some legitimate responses we recieved:

"It's not my problem" "It's just one container, they're gonna sort it all anyway" "It's too much work" "the compost bin is the biggest so its easier to throw stuff in" "I don't believe you" - "Who cares?" - "It's all garbage to me, man"

Thanks to these people, what should be one of the most effective waste counters in Canada has effectively become one big, fancy garbage can.

If you're just going to be a dipstick about recycling, why not save yourself a trip to the trash and just stuff your crap in your pockets? It'll be right where it belongs: In The Garbage.

-annux,

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

WHY I'M FURIOUS #1

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

So long as something 'guaranteed' by a company/product is not written in clear, factual letters or official, governmentally issued symbols (Such as the plastic 1-7 recycling sign), you can pretty safely assume that assuming anything about them is a bad idea.

A prime example of this is the "Respect the Environment" text written on the bottom of a Tim Horton's coffee cup, or the fact that there is a picture of a Tim Horton's cup on the 'paper' section of Tim Horton's waste stations. Is the Tim Horton's coffee cup recyclable?

TECHNICALLY the answer is yes. TECHNICALLY, if coffee HASN'T BEEN POURED INTO THE CUP YET, the cup is paper recyclable. But the moment coffee has been poured into a disposable cup, it stains the inner edge of the cup and makes it damp and completely useless. On top of that, if any coffee is left in the cup when it's disposed (Which is all too common a happenstance for our disgustingly wasteful society), then that liquid will spill through the rest of the paper in the recycling bin and render it ALL useless. I bet that in the history of all the Tim Hortons' paper 'recycling' bins all across Canada, about one bag of mixed paper has actually been recycled.

Last week, in order to try and compete with this, we offered free, all-you-can-drink, organic, fair trade coffee to anyone who brought in a coffee mug. 8 people stopped to quickly grab a coffee or two.

The nearby Tim Horton's was offering $1.22 300ml pesticide ridden mass-produced coffee made by manipulated farmers to anyone who stood in line for 40 minutes. 39 people were in line when I checked.

I noticed someone had a mug with them

"Hey, you know we're giving out free coffee down the hall, right?"

"Yeah"

"Well why are you standing in line?"

"Cuz it's roll up the rim to win!"

There is a 1 in 6 chance of winning roll up the rim. There is a 1 in 2 chance that, if you do win, you will win a 'free' coffee. For every $7.32 you spent and every 6 environment-destroying coffee cups you use, you might save $1.22.

We were GUARANTEEING money-free, waste-free, slavery-free, pesticide-free FREE COFFEE.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!?!?!?!?!

-Annux

Biking, Bills, and Beautiful Weather

Photo credit: unknown

Spring weather has officially arrived, and as I pull out my bike from winter storage I realize that it may need a few tune-ups so I consult my dear colleague Marie-Pier’s blog on cycling tips. And after making some adjustments I decide to go for a nice ride downtown Ottawa, although fearful at first, it turns out alright.

I am fairly nervous biking downtown because the majority of my biking experience stems from growing up in the countryside where your biggest worry is the traffic around five o’clock when all the neighbours are coming home from work for the day. I’ve had a few close calls biking along highways that had no additional room on the side other than choppy gravel that pulls you into the ditch, but other than that my biking experience at home has been very enjoyable.

This year I decided to bring my bike to Ottawa with the promise to wear my helmet at all times to my mother and to be cautious when biking on busy roads. The first few weeks of school I planned out a slightly longer route that used mainly the side roads of Sandy Hill, only crossing Rideau, Laurier and King Edward as little as possible.

After a while, I began being less cautious and started biking at night and using these busy roads more often and was only clipped once by a car that was not patient enough to wait to pass when the sides of the road were blocked by cars. Thrown to the street as the car drove on, I was furious and walked by bike the few blocks home on the sidewalk. Needless to say, I’m a little more cautious once again.

I started working here at the start of this year and was ecstatic to learn that we were communicating with the city regarding the proposal of the Laurier segregated bike lane. This would make life so much easier and less worrisome for cyclists such as me that tend to take out of the way routes for safety. I can only imagine the glee of parents that would like to encourage healthy lifestyles in their children and now have the safe means to do so.

It has been confirmed, that the two year pilot project will begin this spring. The construction of the segregated bike lane will take place between Elgin and Bronson on Laurier Ave and will cost an approximate $1.17 million, an amount that pales in comparison to other traffic costs such as highway extensions. Furthermore, if all goes well it is expected that other bike lanes will be constructed downtown as a means to promote healthy living and sustainable transportation.

For those interested in biker’s rights, so to speak, Bill 74 of the Highway Traffic Amendment Act would require motorists to give cyclists between 3 and 5 feet depending on the vehicles speed when passing. This law has already been passed by many states and also by the province of Nova Scotia. If you are interested in sending an email of support to Kathleen Wayne, the Minister of Transportation, you can fill out a form. And if you wish to see more information regarding the proposal of this law, click here

-merissa

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com