About 6 months ago we posted about how the Office of Campus Sustainability and the Gee Gees are working together to recycle running shoes for the renewal of the Matt Anthony sports field .  A couple of weeks after we posted the blog, the first shipment of shoes was sent out to find a second life. Well, I am here to report to you that the second shipment was sent out just two days ago. I thought it was important to follow up on this story because I personally hate when projects get started and you never hear about them again. It sucks when a program like this is just done once and when all the cameras are gone... it dies. That's not how we like to operate here. And apparently, neither do you. This second shipment contained hundreds of pairs of shoes; the donations keep rolling in!. I think that there might have even been more shoes this time then there were in the first shipment. The company was more than happy to accept this second round. And just in ...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo It is official and the results favour the idea that we could one day have a completely waste free campus. A couple of months back I blogged about the fact that we were building a new Sports Field and that a component of that sports field was going to be composed of recycled shoes. Well the rest of the project has now come to an end and the results for the total diversion of waste are now available. First, there is the total waste diversion from the old field. Since the field is composed of artificial turf, we had to find a way to recycle it. There were 2 components - the turf itself, and the infill (the little rubber pellets that are used to give the field a bouncy feel (and absorb the shock of impact). The old turf was turned into PVC pellets so it can be used to make more PVC products. The infill was collected and is being used to reinforce berms in high traffic areas. Total diversion for the old field is over 90%. Second, the waste for the re...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo As much as I love spring, spring cleaning is an environmentalists worst nightmare. Workers moving out to break the boring chain of stability, Mothers clearing out in search of something they haven’t had since they got married to thier slob of a husband, and University students running out of money to afford living away from home. Suddenly things like mr. couch, mr. toaster and mr. not-in-fashion winter coat are useless. Well, as we all know, useless things go in the garba- WAIT! Do those things look like completely unusable, filthy, destroyed messes? No. Donate them! Okay, but you're already pressed for time, that's what you were throwing stuff out for in the first place! And if your leftovers happen to be food, a hoodie, some books, and an old toaster. How the hell do you donate that? Go to the food bank, then the salvation army, then a second hand library, then a...toaster depot? Wow, time vampire. The solution is obvious: if you’re provided wit...