Reduce, Reuse, and then Recycle!

The Burger family (Chris and Cindy) of Whitney Point, NY, produce less than a bag of garbage together in a year (about 12 ounces of garbage per person per year). To put things in perspective, on the uOttawa campus, employees and students (grad + undergrad + international + employees = 45289*) create 2 385 402 pound of waste a year, which means on average the uOttawa population produces 52.7 pounds of waste every year and most students are only on campus eight months of the year.

That said, the University of Ottawa operates over 18 waste diversion programs. For example, there is traditional paper recycling (about 28% of all recycling), metal and commercial glass products, and more recent ones like the all plastics recycling, YES ALL OF THEM. In recent years, uOttawa also entered the Recyclemania challenge, initiated the Dump & Run program, as well as the furniture recycling program, which  has avoided costs of close to $500,000**. This is part of why the University of Ottawa is sooooo awesome!

There are many ways you can divert waste that are pretty simple. Chris Burger’s personal philosophy, “If you take something into your life, you are responsible for it. If you don't want the responsibility, don't buy the item."
He adds, "And responsibility does not end when the trash is taken to the curb.”*** But for things that you are responsible for (since you bought them) here are a few tips to divert your waste:

• Buy second hand: In Ottawa, there are many websites that sell second hand things for instance: Used Ottawa and Kijiji, for various second hand things such as kids toys and clothing, decoration items and much more. Visit the Canpage website to see all the Ottawa listings.
• Students and community members, uOttawa now has a permanent Freestore that will be open soon full of second hand things in great condition. Don’t hesitate to come by! 
• Compooooooooooooost! : There are no reasons why composting shouldn’t be an everyday task. Compost bags may seem expensive (around $3/5 bags) but consider that 1 bag a week is less than $1 a week. If you’re not willing to pay that much here’s a short video that explains how to make your own bags with used newspapers: , if she can do it, I’m pretty sure you can!
  
  By the way, the smell of compost bothers you, I’ve got the perfect trick for you; I use this glass jar (cost about $15-20 but well worth it). It doesn't smell at all and doesn’t mould.
  
  
  
  
•  Buy in bulk from the grocery store and bring your own Tupperware/bags. 
• Bring your own Tupperware if you’re getting “take-out” or even better, eat out less! 
• Bring all containers (egg carton, styrafome containders, etc) back to the store or go to a store that takes it (Herb & Spice, on bank streen at Gilmour). In the case of egg cartons, you can donate your empty cartons to the SFUO Food Bank
• Getting a cold and having allergies is bad on your trash… either compost your used Kleenex or even better, go old school and use a handkerchief (you can get them by the dozen at Sears) 
• PRECYCLE... If it isn’t recyclable, don’t buy it! 

If you have any questions about tips for better recycling or anything related, please contact us. Even better, if you have any tips or comments, PLEASE COMMENT AND SHARE, WE ARE ALWAYS OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS!

Reusibly,

~ alex – campus sustainability coordinator

photo credit - jonathan rausseo 

* Fact Book, Institutional Research & Planning, University of Ottawa, http://www.uottawa.ca/services/irp/eng/fact-figures/fact/students.html, 2011-2012 statistics, consulted on 22/05/2012.

** Campus sustainability report 2011, Office of Campus Sustainability, University of Ottawa, http://www.sustainable.uottawa.ca/home.html#&panel1-2, report consulted on 22/05/2012.

*** Beckwith, Donna, No garbage Family: Meet The Family That Doesn’t Take Out Its Trash, Green Canada, Huff Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/20/no-garbage-family-meet-th_n_1531131.html?ref=green&ir=Green&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008 article read on 22/05/2012.

The Tales of the Office of Sustainability

Chapter 13- Dump and Run

It was a dark, rainy day when the students were given the ultimatum- have your belongings gathered by noon or leave them for the trash yard. The hurried first-years rushed through their residence rooms, collecting their beloved possessions and ditching their less important things. Between threats from parents, annoyed siblings and under watch by residence employees, they only half-scrapped together their lives and left the rest behind as they departed for summer vacation.

Clothes that were deemed unfashionable, unfitting, or simply forgotten clung to rez corners and were plucked up and thrown into the trash. Some students made the attempt to give them better homes and placed them with care into the Dump and Run locations. Others just took the lot of stuff they did not want and threw it in black bags and tossed them into the dumpster to die.

The dumpster is a dingy and dank place. The black bags and random items comprise the space; and sharp objects poke threateningly through the plastic. It is up to the Office of Campus Sustainability to overcome their fears to save potential donations and recyclables from the dump. It is a tiring and arduous task and some of the student workers fear they may not emerge from the dumpsters alive. Armed with protective gloves (and yours truly with rubber boots), they spend their days coming across a range of goods that they salvage. They reek of all things mouldy and are dripping with a combination of rain and sweat, they are the Sustainability Team and they’re here to combat waste.

Beyond dumpster diving, the team is known for their unique super powers. Whether it is a keen eye for perfectly good donations, a gag reflex that can handle the composting of half-rotten foods, agility with the massive, stubborn carts needed to push donations or the creativity required to organize the sea of stuff that is in “the Pit”.

“The Pit” refers to the dungeon that is the basement of Le Blanc. *Insert ominous music here*the team becomes condemned to “the Pit” for weeks at a time. They swim through the unloved clothes, dishes and assorted “junk” and attempt to wash, sort, and pack it into boxes to be sent away to charities for a second-use. The depths of “the Pit” contain everything from socks with tags still on to spilt soy sauce. It’s a messy task and sometimes we worry about the health of our social lives- but someone’s got to do it.

~ merissa (scrubbing pots and pans till her hands bleed) - campus sustainability coordinator

photo credit - alex forest

A step closer to the end of poverty

Once a year, the University of Ottawa organizes an event where they recycle, recuperate and reuse students', employees' and the community’s unused clothes, electronics, dishes, food (canned) and other reusable things. This amazing program is called the Dump and Run.

That said, the Office of Campus Sustainability’s goal, among many others, is to promote recycling, community engagement, and most of all waste diversion on campus. Over the years, the event has grown and is becoming a part of the uOttawa experience, partly due to the increase in popularity of the event and partly because of the increase in community and students’ involvement.

Now, you are probably wondering why I named this blog "The End of Poverty" since I have not yet discussed poverty. Among the goals mentioned previously, the University of Ottawa wishes to contribute (in their small way) to the end of poverty in the city of Ottawa by promoting this event and leading by example.

To fight poverty, the reusable products recovered from the event will be cleaned and distributed among several charitable organizations throughout Ottawa. For example: The Ottawa Mission who provided the food and shelter for the less fortunate; La maison d’amitié, that helps support abused women and their children; St. Joe's Women's Center, which provides services that are designed to support the settlement and advancement of immigrant and refugee women in the areas of employment, education, skills training, (and the growth and development of their children aged 6 and under).

Imagine if we could capture all of the discarded items in the City and rather than throwing them out, we redistribute them to people in need. Granted that it would take a lot more to end poverty then to just give stuff to people, but at the very least it would be a step in the right direction.

The charitable organizations mentioned previously are only a few among many others that benefit from the "Dump and Run". Since I’ve started to work for the Office of Campus Sustainability only a few weeks ago, I think I have helped provide more for the less fortunate than I have over the entire past year. If you are interested in taking part of this event, please contact us for volunteering opportunities, we always appreciate your help. sustainable@uottawa.ca

~alex - assistant recycling coordinator

photo credit - jonathan rausseo (adapted from Heikki Alanen's "A Beggar in Belem")

uOttawa et la fin de la pauvreté...

Une fois par année, lorsque les étudiants quittent les résidences sur le campus, l’Université d’Ottawa organise un événement de récupération de nourriture non-périssable, vêtements, vaisselle et autres articles ménagers. Ce merveilleux événement s’appelle le «Déposez et dégagez».

Un parmi plusieurs buts du Bureau du développement durable de l’Université d’Ottawa est de promouvoir l’entraide dans la communauté et surtout la réduction de déchets produits sur le campus. Au fil des ans, le programme connait de plus en plus de succès forcément dû à la hausse de popularité du programme, la hausse de l’implication de la communauté ainsi que le bon travail du département de communication et l’équipe au Bureau du développement durable.

Maintenant, vous vous demandez surement pourquoi j’ai intitulé « La fin de la pauvreté» comme titre à un blog qui ne discute que du développement durable. Or, le but du Déposez et dégager, autre que ceux mentionné précédemment est de soutenir notre communauté, plus précisément les personnes en besoin réel dans la ville d’Ottawa.

Pour contrer la pauvreté, les fruits du « déposez et dégager » sont distribués parmi plusieurs organismes de bienfaisance à travers Ottawa tels que The Ottawa Mission qui nourris et fournis des biens (vêtements, souliers, lits, etc.) aux personnes moins fortunées; La maison d’amitié, qui héberge et soutient des femmes victimes de violence et leurs enfants; St-Joe’s Women’s Center, qui offre des services visant à appuyer l’établissement de l’avancement chez les femmes immigrantes et réfugiées dans les domaines de l’emplois, l’éducation, la formation professionnelle ainsi que la croissance et le développement de leurs enfants âgés de 6 ans et moins.

Les organismes de bienfaisance mentionnés précédemment sont trois parmi tant d’autres qui bénéficient du programme « déposez et dégager ». Cliquez ici pour la liste complète des organismes et toute autre information sur le programme.

Depuis mon arrivée au Bureau du développement durable il n'y a que quelques semaines, je crois que j’ai plus accomplis qu’au cours de toute la dernière année (en fait d’aide à réduire la pauvreté). Si vous êtes intéressé à faire partie de la vague, n’hésitez pas à nous contacter pour faire du bénévolat, nous sommes toujours bienheureux d’avoir de l’aide. durable@uottawa.ca 

~alex - coordonnateur de recyclage adjoint

photo credit - jonathan rausseo (adapted from Heikki Alanen's "A Beggar in Belem")

Biking vs. Walking

I recently joined up for the Bike to Work challenge being hosted by the City of Ottawa. The point is to create a goal about how much you would like to bike to work during the month of May, post your goal on their website, and then work towards that goal. Everything was going really well, I signed up on the site, set my goal.... and then I realized a day later that I have moved and don't bike as much as I used to, In fact, I don't actually need to bike at all to get to work.

So now I am stuck in the precarious postilion of in no way being able to meet my cycling goal. This has played heavily on my mind and it got me thinking... what is better for the environment, walking or biking. At first glance you would think walking has biking beat hands down on this one; but maybe not.

Resources
First consider the amount of stuff that goes into making a bike (frame, pedals, seat, etc.) and maintaining. This number isn't so bad if you consider that amount of time you keep a bike for. If your bike lasts 10 years, how many pairs of shoes will you go through during that same period? Not only that, you have to consider the use of the shoes on a kilometre to kilometre basis. So how many pairs of shoes does that total up to?

Consumption
Did you know the average Canadian owns something like 22 pairs of foot wear? Seriously, go check your closet. Shoes are a fashion item and are therefore marketed heavily in society. Bikes are also heavily marketed but because of their size and their cost, people don't buy a bunch of bikes. If I had to guess, a person will go through about 200 pairs of shoes / boots during their lifetime. As for bikes, I figure (and this is a complete guess) the average person will go through about 6 or 7 bikes.

End of Life
So the other thing to think about is what happens to your shoes when you are done with them. Don't worry, we all know that for the most part they go into the garbage bin (I mean come... they are bacteria traps, right? Come on). Bikes though, we it is rare that an entire bike would go right into the garbage bin. Usually they are resold or stripped for parts, so if you think about it they actually have a life-cycle that is much much longer.

Utility
This is a pretty simple comparison... how far can you go on a bike versus by foot, and how long does it take? Bikes = further + faster.

So you see my dilemma right? I mean my heart rate gets a lot higher when I am biking, but of course I am at a higher risk of getting hit by a car. Although I do get around a lot faster. And if you look at what the uOttawa campus offers in terms of biking facilities (secure bike enclosure, bike share program, showers, counter-flow bike lanes, and a bike coop), you can see that there a a lot of good reasons why I would want to hit the bike again rather than beat my feat.

A little help please?

~jON - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

I'm a freegan today. It's my birthday!

I love the month of May. Apple trees are blooming, lilac trees smell like rainbows and I can party like a rockstar. Why? Because it’s my birthday and what better way to celebrate than with free stuff? Basically, it’s been my birthday all month thanks to Dump N’ Run : shampoo, lip balm, a cute dress, rockin’ heels and some summer reads. Least to say the Dump N’ Run has taken away any prejudice I might have had about receiving free things, hence my impatience to set up the permanent Free Store and my frequent visits to the FreeCycle website.

But back to the birthday part. I remembered reading about a girl having spent a day roaming Ottawa for birthday freebies. Not only do I get to wear my favourite dress and receive funny phone calls from relatives, but I can also get free stuff?? AWESOME! Thanks to Google and Yahoo Answers, I managed to track down a few stores I really wanted to visit, besides the obvious restaurants that offer a slice of cake or a drink. Here are a few fun ones:

1. Timothy’s offers a free coffee to anyone who joins their coffee club. Technically, it isn’t a birthday freebie, but maybe they’ll add some extra joy for your special day.

2. Booster Juice offers a free drink on your birthday if you sign up for their updates and what not. You can always send all the mail to your spam box and just check it on your birthday.

3. Sephora will give you a pretty little gift if you go to their store (no purchase necessary) and give them your email address. This year they are giving out a lip balm duo that smells like sunshine and protects your lips from the rays. Yum-my!

4. Dairy Queen ‘s “freebie” is only “free” if you get a friend to buy a medium sized Blizzard and you print off the special coupon. But! If a friend wants to treat you to an ice cream date, it’s ideal.

5. Denny’s offers a great big breakfast to help you recover from last night’s celebrations: pancakes, eggs, bacons, toast and coffee.

6. Tuckers marketplace offers you a free meal on your birthday. That's right free. What could be more freegan?

7. For gluten eaters, What a Bagel will give you a dozen bagels on your birthday. (I’m sooo jealous).

Oh, and if my suggestions are too tame, Hooters will give a t-shirt to the birthday boy or girl.

Enjoy!

~katherine - campus sustainability coordinator

photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Post Bottled Water Free Campus

I had a scare a while back in the form of a mysterious phone call...

Background: I never get calls at work, mostly because I have a strong distaste for talking on the phone and do all my contacting by email or in person but also because I don’t have a work extension nor a phone plan on my cell (hell, I still have a 519 number from home). This equalled my terror when Jon’s voice floated over the cubicle wall to inform me that someone was on the phone for me. In fact, I thought he was joking. Answering the phone, I had my wavering, stranger voice on to hear a man inquire about a report I had written on Water Fountains on campus.

I relaxed a little as he explained that he worked for the Green Education Council of Canada and was interested in setting up a meeting between myself and their CEO to discuss post bottled water ban tactics. ASLDFHEJFKGHY^N%$%[insert excitement here] It just seemed like a great opportunity to showcase the University’s progress as a bottled water free campus; and even though I was not involved in the banning of bottled water (before my time as a Sustainability Coordinator), I have aided in the post-ban strategy. Thankfully, as it was this in particular that the council is interested in exploring.

For those of you who didn’t know, the University of Ottawa became the first bottled water free university in Ontario in September 2010. Since then, the university has invested hundreds of thousands in order to revitalize fountains and keep the campus community satisfied with water access and quality. Where do I fit into all of this? Well, I am an expert water assesmentress (it’s a word, I swear). Basically, I have spent the last two years conducting and writing the water fountain assessment which involves visiting water fountains on campus and taking care of them. I guess my work and Jon’s sweet infographictizing (another real word, look it up) got us noticed :D

Anyhow, after meeting with their CEO, Jon agreed to put me on the project of creating a post ban document that will serve for Canadian (who knows who else) campuses as a strategy guide. It’s all pretty exciting in my enviro geek opinion. Except, Jon seems to think I will be contacting other universities by phone to get input [insert fearful twitches here]. Gulp* time to face my phone anxieties…

~merissa, campus sustainability coordinator
photo credit - kira lamont

Vivre sans déchets: gagnant

Mon introduction dans l'univers du mouvement environnemental est assez plate comme histoire : ma tante travaille dans le même édifice que la Saskatchewan Environmental Society. Elle m’avait perçu comme un jeune militant potentiel déjà à l'âge de 11 ou 12 ans, et donc elle m'a amené au boulot un jour.

Mon premier souvenir en tant qu’« écologiste officiel » a lui aussi peu d'allure : je siégeais à un comité de planification de ladite organisation sans but lucratif. Je crois que ma première vraie tâche était d'appeler la compagnie qui gère les publicités sur les autobus de Saskatoon (ma voix avait encore à mûrir--la honte).

Neuf ans plus tard et je me trouve au Centre de développement durable à l'U d'O. Comme simple bénévole, d'ailleurs. Et un jour, à un atelier, on me demande si je me soumettrais à l'engagement de vivre sans déchets. N'ayant jamais eu l'aptitude qu'a l'individu moyen de dire non, je dis oui. Et voilà ! Deux, peut-être trois mois plus tard et, malgré tout département de marketing et tout fabricant de collations en sachet, je me suis conservé. Malgré eux. Vive l'esprit libre !

L'était-il pénible, l'engagement ? Non, pas autant que ça. Comme j'ai dit à Christine Bérubé au moment de ma conscription, je menais déjà une vie passablement éco. Je mange d'habitude chez moi et apporte de quoi à manger à l'université tous les jours. Ça en soi épargne beaucoup de déchets potentiels. J'achète autant que possible en vrac à l'épicerie, je mange peu en premier lieu, je suis végétarien, je ne me brosse jamais les dents (je blague), je n'ai aucune amante (pensez-y un instant) et je n'ai pas fait du magasinage depuis presque un an. 


Vous voyez, pas dur. J'ai aussi quelques avantages. Je vis tout seul avec ma chatte et fais donc toute décision moi-même. Nous sommes aussi chanceux à cet égard de vivre à Ottawa (Hull, j'en sais rien malheureusement), une ville avec un système de compostage et recyclage raisonnable. Je vous dis, ce n'est pas pareil en Saskatchewan. Le recyclage là, ça « suce ». 

Une information en particulier m'a sauvé la vie : le recyclage de plastique sur le campus, non comme le système municipal, accepte littéralement toute forme de plastique. Un fardeau de moins !

L'était-elle savante, la décision de le faire ? Oui, il va sans dire. Une maxime que nous partageons tous est de se comporter tel que l'on veut que les autres se comportent. Pour reprendre une anecdote de Christine, quelle horreur il serait si tout le monde devait traîner leur propre poubelle toute la journée longue ! Il serait humiliant combien de déchets que l'on produit.

En partie, j'ai accepté le défi pour la même raison que je continue d'être pescetarien (végétarien, si vous voulez), quoique je ne prenne pas plaisir au goût d'animaux morts quand même. Je ne crois pas que la consommation de viande doit être forcément interdite, mais tant qu'il y a autant de gens qui en prennent trop, je me vois dans l'obligation de n'en manger aucune afin de rééquilibrer la situation. De même, il y a trop de déchets, donc même s'il me faut quelques sacrifies, il vaut la peine.

Il ne faut pas nécessairement s'inscrire pour embarquer dans un tel projet personnel. Vous pouvez commencer tout de suite ! Le moins de gaspillage que mon existence suscite, le mieux que je me sens. C'est aussi simple que ça.

~Alex Jürgen Thumm - 1ère année en science politique et philosophiephoto credit - jonathan rausseo

Waste Free Pledge - runner up

http://www.sustainable.uottawa.ca/how-can-i-get-involved.html#Take the pledge

I took on this challenge with gusto on February 5th - yes, the day of the Superbowl. I made sure the snacks and beverages I prepared were made and served in reusable containers. Then, as an added waste-reduction measure, I sorted through any other materials produced by others and recycled it. One of the best parts of this is that when I pulled a bunch of paper towel out of the garbage to compost it (yeah, garbage picking...it wasn't my finest moment), I found $10!!! Being waste-free really does pay off.

As for work, everything I ate had to be packed in reusable containers and transported to and from the office. The hardest part of this was the organics...I had to bring home apple cores and banana peels in order to compost them since there were no bins at work. Everyone in the office thought I was mildly crazy for packing up a container full of organics and encouraging them to do the same, but I think they realized just how much garbage I was NOT producing with my lunches. Hopefully they've taken note of some food to prepare which doesn't produce any garbage.

Throughout the two weeks of my participation in Recyclemania I worked on getting my roommates to recycle and compost more. By the end of my challenge, February 19th, my four roommates had produced only a half-bag of garbage in a week. This is a huge improvement from before Recyclemania! In addition to the half-bag of garbage, there were two full bins of recycling and a good amount of compost. I was fairly proud of them for putting up with me every time I stopped them from throwing food in the garbage or for taking the lazy route of not recycling because they didn't want to rinse a container. We're still rocking the composting and recycling routine and producing far less garbage than before.

I think this challenge was excellent and raised awareness about how wasteful our lifestyles are. I will keep at the anti-waste regime and continue to encourage others to do so as well. Thanks for this challenge!

Cheers,

~Courtney, guest blogger
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Tell me what you want and I’ll make it happen

I’ve been working on the newsletter for a while now. Trying to make it sexy, easy to read and damn attractive. Besides lathering it in chocolate and honey (the obvious way to make anything attractive), I guess I could work on the design and the content. Move around the columns and rows. Add some flashy colours.

Maybe I could add some weird content, for example: “Weird fact of the month: A gorilla can fart ten times louder than a human being”. Would that entice more people to read our newsletter? Or maybe I could do like Cosmo does and add a little corny love story at the bottom that will perpetually end with “to be continued”. If that still doesn't work, we could try a section called “Ten ways to crush compost”, for those who’d rather see old fruit explode.

Why am I throwing out so many random ideas? Well, I find it difficult to tell if the content is interesting or not. The content is what I think will interest fellow students. But I don’t know what everyone else wants and/or is thinking about. I kind of wish I could read minds when this happens. You like Bike to Work Month memes? Done! Silly tweets about nasty underwear found during Dump N’ Run? Done! Volunteer opportunities? Sooo done! I’m the Santa of social media.

I just want to make you happy. Tell me what you want and I’ll make it happen.

~katherine - campus sustainability coordinator
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

You are all Part of my Compost Heap

"We are all part of the same compost heap."
Let’s face it; Tyler Durden knew his shit- or compost rather.

The importance of composting lies at the root of waste diversion (ah ha ha - root, compost = I’m hilarious). We are able to recycle the basics - paper, metal, glass and plastics but the bulk of what is left in most people’s trash is compostable items. I know this because I had the pleasure of sorting through dumpsters and residence rooms after students moved out at the end of April.

The main components of student’s (and in all probability the average person’s) trash was compostable (in the form of rotting foods, yum). This surprised me as the campus has a great composting system in place; a campus vermi-composter located near the portables and an off campus mechanical composter, named Oscar, at 200 Lees. This combination of systems allows for 200 tonnes of composting a year. For students in apartment style residences, it is as simple as contacting your residence program coordinator for a bin and emptying it when needed in the same area as you do recyclables and waste. For conventional residences, if you do not have a Green Rep, then you can opt to become one here which would make you responsible for emptying the bin on your floor’s kitchen to the recycling area. To learn more about what can be composted click here.

Some interesting campus composting facts:

• the utensils in the cafeteria are compostable, they have the brand name “Polar” and can be placed in the food area composting bins 
• most containers given out in the cafeteria are compostable, 28 are thrown out per hour in the cafeteria on average 
• brown paper towels (when wet) are compostable, most washrooms on campus have specific bins for their disposal 
• coffee cups on campus are compostable (their plastic lids are recyclable in the all plastics program) 

For those off-campus readers, the City of Ottawa’s green bins are collected every week. If you are new to composting or need to replace a stolen bin, look here. If you live in a multi-unit or apartment building, it may be as easy as contacting your landlord and requesting a system be put in place. You can offer to take responsibility for the disposal of your own kitchen bin and larger green bin to the curb each week and even connect with neighbours to get involved.

Finally, remember to keep your bins clean! Rinse after each disposal to prevent ants from infiltrating your kitchen. Cleaning bins is a lot easier when using compost bin liners which you can apparently buy- but we suggest making them yourself from old newspapers. See how here. Also, for any further information on campus composting check out our office’s website.

Happy Composting!

~ merissa | campus sustainability coordinator

photo credit | merissa

The Gender of Recycled Clothing

Spring is now fully upon us, bringing with it an anxiousness to rid oneself of all the habits and possession that we accumulate in the long cold winters. Some students are moving on to new lives having graduated, others may just be moving on to new places, leaving behind their cramped residence rooms, in lieu of less supervised and more spacious digs to live out their future university memories. In any case it has led to an abundance of perfectly good clothes, food, and furniture to end up on roadsides, in dumpsters, and in some cases in our Dump ‘N Run locations.

For those of you that haven’t seen the photos, or seen our posts, Dump ‘N Run is a time when we take donations or things we’ve found dumped around the University, sort it, clean it up and then donate it to local charities and shelters, saving hundreds pounds of perfectly good things from ending up in landfill sites. For those of you who have seen the photos and posts, yes we did in fact climb into dumpsters and sort through garbage, as yes the smell is as bad as we claim.

Now I’m not an organizationally inclined individual, so my recent condemnation to “the pit”, as we’ve nicknamed it, to sort through Dump ‘N Run things, has caused a temporary shift in my otherwise abstract thought process. Everything has a category, subcategory, and by extension a pile on the floor. Now this may seem silly to most but this has lead to an immense amount of internal conflict and self-reflection for me, especially when it comes to sorting clothes.

You see some of our categories are things like mens shirts and womens shirts, mens pants and womens pants, and then dresses/skirts. This means every shirt, pair of pants or dress/skirt has to be designated as a man’s or woman’s. Now at first I didn’t think much of it, some things just seemed to obviously belong to one pile or the other, but every now and then I would wander across something which I couldn’t decide to which pile it belonged. This got me thinking about what descriptors I was using to categorize clothes in.

For instance larger shirts often got grouped into the “mens” pile, while smaller ones “womens”, but that didn’t seem right as women can and do wear large size shirts, and men smaller ones. Colours and cuts also were a factor, but that too wasn’t taking into consideration men who may like more tailored cuts, or find that the colour pink really brings out their eyes, or women who like mens clothing cuts and patterns. This just lead to deeper and deeper contemplations, like “well why is this a descriptor I associate with a specific gender, and why is everything to be confined to such a binary system”.

I myself have been known to wear ‘mens’ clothing, and many of my male friends to wear ‘womens’ clothing, so who am I to reinforce age old gender stereotypes on people, especially on those who might not identify with the gender norms imposed by society.

So before I knew it I had one towering pile developing in front of me, filled with a mix of colours cuts, sizes, patterns and no longer subject to sub categorizations, or classifications. Now I know that many of you may think I took this sorting thing too far, and maybe that’s why my room is in a state of perpetual disaster, but I couldn’t help but to continue these contemplations on the gender assumptions we make which I feel are based on outdated systems of categorization.

I guess I’m not totally sure where I going with this, or whether there is a point to this blog at all. I suppose all I’m trying to do is engage you readers in my thought process, and share in this reflection of mine, in hopes that maybe we can all move forward being more conscious of the gender binaries and norms which exist in our society, and work to develop alternative structures, because well... sustainability is about more than just the environment.

~kira - campus sustainability coordinator
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Smart Spring Cleaning

It’s the time of year when the weather is warming up, everything is fresh and new and everyone’s favorite activity comes to mind… Spring cleaning!

Here are some quick tips on easy ways you can get rid of clutter, clean up and organize without creating waste.


Purge Unused Items 
Someone wise once said, “If you haven’t used it in 6 months, you don’t need it.” Maybe it was Oprah. Maybe not. Since we live in an extremely seasonal climate, I stretch this for a year. For me this is mostly a wardrobe purge but look in your closets and under your bed. Are you REALLY going to use that tennis racket that has been lying around for 2 years?

Collect all your good but unloved stuff and bring them to the Dump and Run! You may not be using the seashell adorned photo frame your aunt gave you for graduation but someone out there might just fall in love with it.

Don’t forget to look through your cupboards and pantry. Lots of dry goods can keep for extended periods of time but often, if it’s been hiding way at the back, it may be unsalvageable. Put it in your home or campus compost.


Clean Up Using Natural Cleaners
It’s very easy to make a wide array of cleaning products if you have the following ingredients on hand:

• Baking soda (scrubs, deodorizes and clears blockages) 
• Vinegar (disinfects, deodorizes and softens fabric) 
• Lemons (dissolves soap scum and mineral deposits, polishes wood and shines metals) 

The internet is awash with recipes for homemade cleaners. Some of my favorites can be found right here.


Keep It Up
Be sure to regularly assess what you need before bringing more stuff into your space. Is this going to end up in the far corner of your closet within two months? Another way to ensure that you use what you have is to keep everything where you can easily access it. If you can see all the contents of your closet/pantry/shelves etc. easily without having to shuffle stuff around, you are more likely to use it. You can donate your stuff all year round at the Free Store just in case you are looking for a place to send it all.

If you are fully using everything you have, you might be less inclined to get more stuff you don’t really need.

~tiana - guest blogger

Good Progress, Bad Progress

I too used to be an optimistic about technology and science. I thought every time there was a problem either technology was going to fix it or science somewhere, we're over 7 billion on the planet, someone is bound to figure it out. - But now, not so much!It seems that there is good progress and bad progress and sometimes it is difficult to differentiate both of them. Here is an example of what I mean:

We might have found a way to provide ourselves with basic foods such as vegetables and fruits all year round but it beats the purpose of their consumption: they are loosing their nutritional values (vitamins) because of chemicals used to grow them faster and bigger and the way we harvest them.

Moreover, we keep investing in events like " bike for cancer" and "walk for cancer" and so on to get funds to develop more technology and science to find a cure for cancer. Maybe were going in the wrong direction. Maybe it's time to go back to our old habits. Instead of lobbying to get funds for research, we should lobby against the use of chemicals in our food industry and body products or any products we use and has contact with our body. One good outcome of science is that we figured out why cancer cases are increasing: it is not because population is increasing but rather because we are treationg our bodies like machines, we fill our bodies with chemicals through eating and cleaning ourselves and expect to stay alive without any consequences.

It is time now to start being more sustainable, buy more locally and tell our government that we can't take it anymore, we want to eat and live without chemicals, a few voices may not be heard, but millions of voices can!

~alex, campus sustainability coordinator
photo credit - loup niboyet

Bike Horn Symphony in A-flat Minor

I love cycling to work every day. It clears my mind, wakes my body and gives me enough time to go from grumpy and groggy to awake and chirpy. I try to be respectful of everyone else (cyclists, cars and pedestrians), as well as respect the basic rule that a bike is like a car when on the street. So I stop at red lights, signal when I’m about to turn or change lanes and always look around.

You can imagine my dismay when I got honked at this morning by a man in a dark blue honda merging into my lane is I was going straight on Allumetières (downhill too). I guess I was slowing him down in his merging because he started to honk at me, and had I been lost in my thoughts, I probably would have toppled off my bike (into a mucky puddle). Let’s say it wasn’t a little gentle “beep”. It was more like “BEEEP”. I tried to tell him to wait a minute and to let me change lanes, but he prefered to honk again. I eventually managed to change lanes before he ran me over.

The lesson from this? If I had a horn on my bike and used it every time a car did something I judged stupid (or simply annoying), there would be a symphony throughout most of Hull and Ottawa every week day. It would be called the Horn Symphony for Cycling Safety in A-flat minor by Katherine. Keep an eye out for it, it’ll soon be on iTunes and YouTube.

~kath - campus sustianability coordinator

photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Dump N Run: A Love Letter to our Staff and Volunteers

We just finished up D-Day (a.k.a Dump Day, a.k.a Dump and Run Day) and I really wanted to get this off my chest while it is still fresh on my mind. To all our staff members and volunteers... thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Over the past two days I have personally witnessed sacrifice, dedication, and determination. As a group we have been running around collecting waste from dumpsters, collection tables, private residences, and other nooks / crannies. At times this has been a true test of one's mettle. There have been smells that could wake the Dead. There have been taunts and disapproving stares from community members. There have been cuts; there have been bruises; there have been cramps; and there have been tears.

In addressing the group today I said that I was touched. The blood, tears, and sweat shed by this group have not been in vain. We will clean the items collected and we will find them new homes. We will go to shelters and we will go to clinics and we will make sure that every last article is given a fair chance at a new life. I told the group that because of them someone who did not have a meal the day before will have one tomorrow. Because of them, a mother who could not provide her children with necessities won't have to see her children looking back at her with empty hands.

I lack the skill to truly articulate the impact that our staff and volunteers are having on the community, and for this I am sorry. And I want to add a special thanks to Katimavik who found it in their hearts to have two groups come out today and keep us one step ahead. The country will sorely miss the presence of these dedicated youth working hard to make communities better, and in a sense to make us all better.

Please take a look at the album of photos that we will be putting up on our Facebook group and on our Tumblr page and please pass them along to your friends. The amount of waste that could be taken away from landfills and given to people in need is astounding. We owe it to ourselves to do the little things that will make the kind of world we want to live in. Question the impacts of your consumption and question the impact of your waste because these are two things that can help make the difference.

~jON - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo