If there was one thing that you wish you could recycle but don't think you can, what would it be? Cosmetics, shoes, wipes? Well we are looking to add a few new recycling programs on campus and we need your input!!
Is Recycling Good?
There are some really good arguments out there that suggest recycling systems are broken. And I am not going to lie... they make a lot of sense.
On the one hand, many people don't understand that recycling is an energy intensive activity that sometimes takes more energy than it might be worth. Recycling programs, especially curbside ones, don't recycle all the products they could... or sometimes companies promise their products are recyclable but they aren't actually in your city.
But on the other hand, doing something is better than doing nothing, right? Getting onto the habit of trying to recycle helps lead to other positive environmental behaviours. And asking for more recycling will help push for better recycling and events and in your city... or in this case, on your campus.
Campus Recycling Programs
At the University of Ottawa, we have over a dozen waste streams that the community can participate in. Some are blindingly obvious (paper and cardboard) and others are sneaking and tricky (like plastic which really is a too complicated for even advanced recyclers to understand). But there are also a few specific recycling streams that we have, like pen recycling. These are possible because of programs like TerraCycle.
These specialized recycling programs come in all shapes and sizes. For instance, Call to Recycle is a Province-wide battery recycling program funded by electronic waste fees. And Textbooks 4 Change is a B-Corp that collects and redistributes or recycles textbooks. But the most popular one we have on campus is TerraCycle.
There is a lot on controversy about the TerraCycle model for recycling. A lot of it centres on having to transport waste long distances, and what happens to the stuff that can't be recycled. An argument can be made that because TerraCycle exists, companies that use them to recycle their products don't have to improve their packaging. Essentially they can keep making hard-to-recycle packaging and use TerraCycle as a shield.
But, sometimes you have to make the best of a bad situation and work with what you've got. For example, TerraCycle has a program to recycle oral care products like toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. Although there are some alternatives to toothbrushes and jar that could be used instead of plastic tubes, many of these products are obscure and not accessible to the general public. So until better products are made more available, maybe TerraCycle is the bridge program we need?
But I am not here to convince you one way or another, I want to know what you want to recycle. Maybe starting with getting people into the habit of recycling is the gateway to better waste management practices... so let's start there.
The Office of Campus Sustainability will be working with our partners on campus to create a few new recycling streams accessible to the campus community. We want to start with popular items that make sense to let us know where we should begin. And if that works, maybe we can establish a recycling hub on campus to help keep your waste out of landfills.
~ jonathan rausseo - campus sustainability expert