The Sustainabilitree

The times they are a changing, and now so is recycling at uOttawa. This month you may have noticed that the signs on the recycling bins have changed. Simply put, the University of Ottawa has a new waste management contract and we have made some modifications and upgrades to the recycling system. Here is a complete run-down of the changes that affect you. Coffee cups are compostable One of the biggest changes to the recycling system is that you can now compost your coffee cups. As the compost system expands on campus, more and more disposable items on campus are being replaced with compostable ones. Take for example the compostable cutlery and carry away clam-shell containers available at most food service locations on campus. These items are more preferable to their conventional plastic counterparts. *Do remember though, coffee lids are not compostable and should be separated and placed in the trash bin. The only exception are the lids from Première Moisson, which are ...

We've seen that post somewhere... "Headed to Toronto this weekend, I have a few extra seats". Sometimes people are doing this because they don't like o make ling drives alone, or because they are looking for someone to split gas money with. Either way, this is ridesharing and it is an important part of the sharing economy. Ridesharing isn't a new concept. The idea is fairly simple, a car is headed somewhere and there some empty seats... Ridesharing is the basically an option to fill those seats up. Think of it like carpooling but to another city. So if you have a car, you can offer a ride to people headed to the same place as you (and charge a small fee for the ride). Or if you want to go somewhere but don't have a ride, you can ask someone who is headed to the same place to drive you (and compensate them for their troubles). The internet is awash in "ride boards", places where you can see where people are headed or where they need a ride t...

Welcome welcome welcome! The summer is coming to an end and you are probably soaking up those last morsels of sunshine before you head to uOttawa for the academic year. Now for some of you, this is going to be your first year and there is a good chance that you will live in residences. For others, this isn't your first rodeo and you are getting ready to move into a place off campus. In either case, we have a handy guide for things you should and shouldn't pack on your way to campus this year. Thanks to the Free Store, your one stop shop on campus for all things FREE, there is a good chance that you won't have to waste valuable luggage space on these items.  This makes sense for your wallet and the environment. Hangers The Free Store has a virtually unlimited amount of hangers. How? Well a little known secret is that clothing stores have their products shipped to them with the hangers already added. It is cheaper to have workers add them at the factory...

INSTRUCTIONS TO VOLUNTEERS BEFORE THE DUMP AND RUN So listen closely, because I am only going to say this once. We have some rules to go before you get started and my job is to make sure that you are all safe and that we collect as much stuff as possible. First things first, thank you all for coming out and agreeing to help us for the 207 Dump and Run. You volunteers represent the last line of defense between us and the landfill. If we don't collect this stuff today, it will certainly be garbage tomorrow. We are systematically going to go around to each and every residence and collect all the donations, old food, and unwanted things. The majority of the stuff you collect will be left on the donation tables in the main lobby of every building. But we won't stop there. We will move into every common room, every shared kitchen, every washroom, and collect all the stuff left behind. If you run into other cleaning staff or Housing staff, do what they say. We have partnere...

For those who have their own small garden plots, me included, the growing season is just getting started. But I want my fruits and veggies now, because I am spoiled and various other reasons that we don't have to get into. So lucky for me, I am signed up for a CSA (community supported Agriculture) at the University of Ottawa. I've already covered the uOttawa Farm Basket Program in another post but here is a brief summary just in case you missed it. A CSA is at its core a special contract with a farmer. Instead of paying for fruits and vegetables at the market, you pay for them before they are planted and they are delivered to you as they are ready. You share the risk with the farmer, but you also share the savings. This is the third year that the program will operate at uOttawa with the cooperation of Health Promotions and Food Services. The reason we got involved and brought the program on campus was pure convenience. We figured that if we make healthy food easier for ...

The Office of Campus Sustainability is working to change the story when it comes to campus emissions, especially when it comes to fleet vehicles. So don't be surprised this summer if you notice the staff of uOttawa Facilities zipping around campus on bikes. I once heard a talk that emphasized the idea that if you want sustainability to stick, you need to make sure that it is making your life better. It may not seem like it a first blush, but that is exactly what this initiative is all about. So why put people on bikes? Well, there are a couple of reasons. Employees First, the employees wanted it. Although the uOttawa campus isn't huge, it is still a bit of a trek to go from one end to the other, even more so to get to the Lees campus. And there are always a few meetings at the hospital or City Hall. Having some bikes to move around more quickly makes everyone's job easier. The bikes are fixed gear for easy maintenance. They have a wooden box fixed to the back...

Dans la Salle à manger 24/7, on entend souvent parler de gaspillage. Comme nous ne produisons aucun déchet, le tout est destiné au compostage, ce qui est quelque peu réconfortant. Dans la foulée de l’événement « J’aime la bouffe, pas le gaspillage » qui a eu lieu le mois dernier, je me suis posé une question bien simple : si nous gaspillons tant à la consommation, à quoi peut ressembler le gaspillage en cuisine? La Salle à manger se targue d’être un espace sans déchets, mais il me semble que cet exploit s’applique avant tout à l’aire de restauration. On n’y trouve aucune paille, aucun emballage, aucun contenant qui puisse se transformer en déchet. Alors, que se passe-t-il en coulisse, là où l’on prépare la nourriture? Cet espace serait-il lui aussi sans déchet? Pour m’aider à élucider ce mystère, j’ai demandé à Maryann Moffitt, des Services alimentaires, de m’aider à passer de l’autre côté du miroir. Dès mon arrivée en arrière-scène, je suis immédiatement frappée par le nombr...

 So in our lovely 24/7 Dining Hall we hear about the waste we produce all the time. I mean it’s not really waste it's all compost for us, not as bad as garbage, right. With the Love Food Not Waste event taking place last week, I asked myself the simple question: if we produce this much waste just eating, how much does the kitchen produce making the food we eat? You see the Dining Hall is zero waste but that is in the part where you and I eat. There are no straws, no wrappers, no containers, nothing that can become garbage. What about in the "back of house" where all the food is made? Is that also zero waste? Now figuring this out was a little harder than I thought so I got in contact with Maryann Moffitt from Food Services and asked her to show me around. First there were a lot of elevators and stairs in there, WOW! I would have definitely gotten lost. Luckily I had Maryann to guide me. We went right to the core of the question which meant the she actually too...

T.S Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month and although for different reasons than his, I couldn’t agree more. Exams are stressful, your thesis might be due, you have to nail down a summer job or maybe even decide what your graduation game plan is. You’re saying goodbye to friends and professors for the summer, or maybe for longer. And on top of all this, you might even have to move out, move in or move home. I see moving as an opportunity to downsize and declutter. One of the central tenets or zero waste is minimalism, or at least that everything you own serves a purpose and was procured sustainably. But how do you get rid of the big things, like a kitchen table or all your glassware, and not just leave them on the side of the road, or worst, throw them away. The reuse economy is the best place to get things and give away things when moving. What is the reuse economy? It is so many things! The salvation army, consignment stores, selling clothing in facebook groups or even...