In their 2008 progress report, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environmental Development defined the circular economy as " a generic term for the reducing, reusing and recycling activities conducted in the process of production, circulation, and consumption " (CCICED, 2008). In the 1990s, the term "Circular Economy" was popularized in China, stemming from rapid economic growth and subsequent strain on the country's natural resources. The principle of a circular economy is to capitalize on the recycling/reuse of raw materials while balancing natural resource use with economic growth. Although definitions of circular economy are relatively modern, the fundamentals of the circular economy have been around since before the industrial revolution.   Examples of a circular economy in Ottawa are second-hand stores such as Value Village. The role of thrift stores in promoting reuse is essential. Buying clothing second-hand is an efficient way to pr...

I know this sounds a little counter-intuitive.... you know, make sure you don't pack for your trip back to university. But if this sounds a little out of the box, then it's clear you don't know about the Free Store. Let's make this brief in case you do know about the Free Store . Every year the Office of Campus Sustainability collects all the stuff that students leave behind on their way out the door for the summer. We clean it, fix it, sort it, whatever it.... and get it back into the hands of students via this nifty little shop called the Free Store. And so the Free Store is perfectly named as it is a store where everything is free. We do this because we are reducing waste on campus and conserving precious resources. Now that you know the whole story, here is a quick list of the top five things that we get so much of that there is no point for you to bring your own to campus this year. Binders! Don't do it man, just don't do it. We have hundreds o...

Each spring, I end up looking at my wardrobe in complete desolation.  I never know how to dress when the weather gets too warm to wear my winter coat and boots, but not warm enough yet to wear my favorite summer dresses and skirts.  Adds to my desperation when I sort through my stuff and find clothes that I haven’t worn in years… So this year I decided to see things differently.  Rather than keeping all of my old clothes, I decided to bring everything I didn’t want anymore to the Free Store.  And over there, I was able to find some great pieces that could easily be paired with accessories and basic pieces that I already owned in order to create new and fun outfits.  With the help of other students working and volunteering with the Office of Campus Sustainability, I was able to organize a photoshoot to show you where a little creativity can take you. As the weather gets warmer, sweaters often get pushed over to the top shelf of the closet, never to be seen...

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 th...

The Dump & Run is simultaneously one of the most rewarding and disappointing activities that we have on campus. The event centers around campus move out, during which thousands of students flee the campus to have happy and productive summers back home. The problem is that during their time on campus, these students tend to over consume and then find themselves in the precarious position of having to get rid of their excess stuff in a small window of time. Our office therefore organizes the Dump & Run every spring to try to collect as much of this stuff before it is tossed into the garbage. So on the one hand the whole thing is very rewarding. We get to collect thousands of items (totally almost four tonnes last year) and then donate them to about a dozen charities around Ottawa. We get the satisfaction of knowing that we have diverted waste and helped out those in need. On the other hand though, I estimate that we are only able to capture about 20% of all the w...

Photo credit: art.com So it seems that with the passing of generations we have lost something special... the ability to sew. The reason why I am bring thins up right now is two fold. First, my grandmother just handed down to me her mother's sewing machine. I am really excited about this because it means that I now have something in my possession that has been in my family for 4 generations. The machine is a turn of the century Singer and is peddle powered (enviro swoon). My biggest regret is that I don't actually have a picture of it to put into this post, but I will get one. The second reason for this topic is the recent addition of EcoEquitable to the Free Store line-up. This past week the ladies of EcoEquitable were working furiously to alter clothing at the Free Store. I was really happy to see this for a couple of reasons. Of course it makes sense to repair and alter clothing. Back in the day, even before my time, clothing was super expensive. The thought of re...