If there is one thing I've learned as a recycling coordinator at uOttawa is that when it comes to waste, the learning curve is very very steep. If for me, whose work involves going through garbage daily, correctly triaging my waste seems complicated, what about a student? As I yelled a curse-word at yet another mis-triaged bin, I started to wonder. Was the system too complicated or the people not informed as they should be? Or, do they just not care? My answer is “they do” seem to care...as long as the process is not so complex as to requiring them holding three masters degrees to understand it or taking an hour of their time to sort one item. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a system is “a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method”. The only drawback with this definition is that there is no indication to the amount of complexity people can handle. But, to no surprise, the more options you have, the more likel...

My first week living in Canada was spent sorting through trash, and I am so glad I had the chance to do it! As a new graduate student at the University of Ottawa, I made the decision to leave my job in Boston and make the move up to Ottawa during Reading Week. While looking for ways to hit the ground running, I found the Alternative Study Break program, and decided to spend my week volunteering with the Office of Campus Sustainability. We were tasked with performing a waste audit on the Friel Residence, then collecting and analyzing the data. Talking about the issues with waste, collection, and contamination was an eye-opening experience and having the opportunity to see for myself the amount of waste that is produced by one building felt like an urgent wake-up call. We found a staggering amount of waste contamination, as recycling and garbage were often placed in the incorrect streams. Surprisingly, the majority of waste was incorrectly placed, and this carries significant implication...

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 ...

 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...

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 ...

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 ...