~ This is a piece about plastic that I really could live without and how to navigate normative grocery stores in a more eco-friendly way. Yes more than anything really, this will be a rage piece about unnecessary everyday plastic that really does not need to exist and what we can do to live without it. ~ I began thinking critically about the everyday items I buy each week at the grocery store around September when I started to transition more and more towards being plastic-free. Like most students, my life is a balance between trying to eat healthy and work hard and then eating my stresses away with sweets. We are all trying our best. Its exam time now. Nothing a few bulk chocolate chips can’t fix. It’s going to be all good. You know what isn’t all good? Foods packaged unnecessarily! Foods for sale that have unnecessary plastic packaging when you can get the same food in a plastic-free manner! So I am going to tell you how I really feel and we’re going to go through the grocer...

Every year during RecycleMania the Waste bucket challenge is issued. What is the Waste Bucket challenge? It is trying to live waste free for a period of time during RecyleMania. This may seem impossible but Brigitte Morin, uOttawa's Waste Diversion Coordinator, has done it many times successfully. Here is what she had to say about it. It’s all about preparation Brigitte says the key to succeeding in this challenge is to prepare. You have to think about it all ahead of time, what you have to buy, what meals you are making etc. Stuff you have at home already counts If you have food in disposable containers at home you need to finish them before the challenge starts because if you finish them while on the challenge you have to count it as waste. You don’t have to produce zero waste just less than normal When people hear about the challenge they assume they cannot produce any waste to be successful, but that’s not the truth. The challenge is about reducing waste not elim...

In the spirit of Barney Stinson and in an attempt to really walk the sustainable walk, this past week I accepted a challenge from a fellow environmentalist to truly trashless. What challenge you ask? Sure to be the latest mannequin or ice bucket challenge to have all the youths blowing up their social feeds, the waste bucket challenge raises awareness to the amounts of waste we produce every single day. So this is how the challenge works. Any trash you produce is kept in a bucket or receptacle or whatever of choice allowing you to see how much of what you consume regularly is non-compostable or non-recyclable. So to reiterate, if it cannot be composted or recycled, it goes and stays in the bucket. I used a 32 oz. glass container rather than any sort of garbage cans as I moved about my normal life for a week. I also equipped myself with my trusty travel mug, Nalgene, mason jars, canvas bags, a fork/spoon and reusable containers. So now five days later, with a glass container...

As you may or may not have heard, the University of Ottawa is again the Canadian Champions of RecycleMania. This marks the 6th straight victory for the uOttawa and a milestone in terms of our diversion rate (we are closing in on the elusive 60% diversion rate). But this is not a blog post to brag about our accomplishments, this is a post to honour the winners of our "Pledge to Live Waste Free" contest. This year's winner is in fact not one person, but the entire uOttawa Health Promotion's Nutrition Team. Congratulations! Only with your efforts can uOttawa truly become a waste free campus. Here is the blog post from the winning team. Living "waste free" was not the most difficult aspect of taking the Recyclemania Pledge. When there was something that had to be "thrown away," there were remarkably few things that did not fit into the any of the recycling categories found widespread on campus: Plastic, Metal and Glass, Compost, and Mixed Pap...

Recycle Mania So this week I am pledging to recycle mania, meaning I am not going to be purchasing or throwing out anything that cannot be recycled or composed. You should try it and see how well you do! Please share if you do in fact try this out! Recycle mania blurb The hardest tasks to accomplish without wasting are the smallest tasks, like air drying your hands after washing them, bringing your own sugar for coffee or just drinking it black. But you know what it’s worth it, so go out and reuse (maybe recycle)! Recycle Mania Summary All in all, recycle mania is a great concept. Reusable mugs, containers and water bottles for the week wasn’t actually that hard to do at all! Just carrying around a bottle is great because you can always quench your thirst without having to buy and throw out a plastic bottle. Containers as well, it is so easy to just rinse them when you are done and use them again the next day. The hardest part of this week would have to be realized that eve...

Waste Free Month Done... Waste Free Life Begins! Ok, so my waste free month is technically done, and I realized that living waste free isn't as hard as it sounds; especially at Uottawa. We have this fantastic recycling program here where practically ANY type of plastic can be recycled at any recycling station on campus! This makes living waste free a lot easier!  During this month I learned a few things.  Mainly I learned that living waste free is the most difficult when you go out places. When you go to a restaurant or a function it is almost impossible to know where your food scraps and things will end up because you can't control that. I also stayed at a hotel with my family and I realized that it's pretty hard to live waste free there because there is no compost or recycling, and even though we put our recycling in a box; who knows where it is going to end up?! Also, living waste free was impossible at my work. I work at BeaverTails on the canal and even though ...

I failed - but not miserably - at being waste free for a week. A pessimist would tell you it's impossible to live waste free while an optimist would say that accepting the challenge is already an improvement from the week prior. I have always tried to reduce, reuse and recycle when it was convenient for me but this competition made me identify my own personal wasteful habits: using tissues, plastic sandwich bags and Q-tips, commuting by car too often, leaving the hot water run and buying treats in non-recyclable packaging, just to name a few. Have I made an oath not to use these products and behave in these ways ever again? No. Becoming more sustainable is like getting in shape - it doesn't happen overnight. I can't promise that I'll never contribute to a landfill, drive a car or enjoy an all dressed chip from a non-recyclable bag. However, each time I am wasteful, I'll think about modifying my consumption and activities next time around in order to lessen my i...

Living waste free is a huge learning experience. Even before I began my official two week period of Pledging to live waste free I had become more aware of the amount of waste/recyclables I go through and was already trying ways to cut back on the waste I produce. Watching the documentary "The Clean Bin project" and learning from the Office of Campus Sustainability, I had already acquired useful tips on how to live waste free before my official two weeks. The amount of items able to be recycled on Campus is amazing, which helped me be able to recycle more. So I admit I was at an advantage to someone who hadn't thought about how to live waste free and who began cold turkey for the Pledge. Since I became more aware of my waste, I have come across situations that I wouldn't have thought twice about if I hadn't been trying to cut back on waste. Take for example paper towels in the campus bathrooms. If there are no hand dryers and only paper towels, I could not thr...

Recyclemania was coming up again this year, and I decided to give it a whirl for three weeks – a week longer than I did it last year. In preparation for the event and throughout the three weeks, grocery shopping became a little more arduous – no products with sneaky plastic wrap or Styrofoam (ie. fresh fish and meat) or plastic bags. Luckily, I already use mesh bags instead of the available thin plastic bags to contain fresh fruits and vegetables. I also carry a reusable grocery bag (one of those ones that roll up into a little bundle) with me all the time in case there’s ever an unplanned grocery trip/purchase/need of a bag. For nixing the plastic wrap/foam plates found with fresh meats, simply buy frozen seafood with recyclable plastic packaging, and meats from a butcher – butcher paper is compostable! In addition to some modifications to my grocery purchases, the disposal of my everyday items needed to be reassessed. Dryer lint? Compostable. Cotton cosmetic pads? Compostable. V...

Day 1: Feb. 3 Today is the first day of RecycleMania, an event held in universities across the country to promote sustainability and waste reduction. I’ve pledged to live waste-free for the entire duration of RecycleMania meaning from today until March 30th, I will throw NOTHING in the garbage!  I’m nearly one day in and so far so good! I had a couple close calls ending with having to fish tissues/cotton balls out of the trash (my own trash, luckily) and put them in their rightful place (my compost bin!). I think Google will be my best friend throughout all of this. Every phrase I’ve searched today has begun with “can you recycle/compost ___?”. Carrying a reusable bag is also a must. Public compost bins are few and far between (even recycling bins can be rare!) so I’ve been chucking all of my things in a bag and carting them back to campus where I can dispose of them properly. So far my only two stumbling blocks have been gum wrappers and the stickers on all of my fruit. Ev...

Bonjour tout le monde/Hey Everyone! My name is Julie Cook and I’ll be taking over for the amazing Brigitte Morin as Recycling Coordinator on campus for the next year while she is on maternity leave. It is an absolute honour. I’ve had the good fortune of working alongside Brigitte for a few weeks so she could teach me the ropes of this very important position. One of the coolest things I’ve done so far is to take the Pledge to Live Waste-Free for the entire eight weeks of RecycleMania . For anyone who doesn’t already know, RecycleMania is an international competition among over 600 universities and colleges in the world that compete to produce the least amount of waste and the most amount of recyclables per capita. The University of Ottawa has been the top university in Canada for the past four years, and we’re aiming to make it five! RecycleMania this year runs from February 3 to March 30th. We could really use some more volunteers for some of the awesome initiatives we have pl...