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...

The community gardens are back... and just in time cause this snow is killing me. Sunday the community garden group got together for a garden work bee. Thanks to a compost delivery last Friday, there was plenty of work to do. A good part of the day was spent cleaning out old plots, trenching the existing plots, adding some compost, and finally.... gratuitous hi-fives. This marks the 8th consecutive year of community gardening on campus at the University of Ottawa with approximately 50 plots available to staff, students, and community members. Not bad considering the garden originally started out as a small group of 10 students sharing 4 plots. This year, like that last few years, the resources for the garden were provided by Physical Resources Service and the community organizing was provided by OPIRG . And like last year, the plots are open on a first come first serve basis and are free to all those who participate. I am really happy to see the gardens up and running thi...

I get a lot of people asking about both Earth Day and Earth Hour. There is a consensus.... Earth Day is better than Earth Hour. The problem is I just don't believe it. Earth Day is a great day. It was started in 1970 and was famously chosen to be on April 22nd, which was incidentally the birthday of the lead ad agency guy. It was immense and did lead to some very important environmental reforms in the United States and subsequently Canada. It is widely celebrated but recently it has not reached the popularity it enjoyed in the early 70's. Earth Hour is a one hour celebration that asks people from around the world to turn off their lights for one hour as a symbolic gesture demonstrating that we can all play a role in helping the Earth. The problem with Earth Hour is that the event is so small that people tend to diminish the importance of the event. "Oh yeah.... one hour eh? How the hell is that going to help the planet?" So which one is better? Neither, they ...

Congratulations uOttawa; we are RecycleMania Canadian champions for the fourth year in a row! We achieved a 50% waste diversion rate average, and we produced only 14.17 lbs. per person of waste during the 8 weeks of the competition. Overall, with 605 participating Canadian and American institutions we placed 27th; which is pretty amazing considering that most of the institutions that did better than us had under 10,000 students – some even under 1,000. I would like to thank all of you who helped us achieve this by learning to recycle better, bringing their reusable coffee mugs, creating less waste, building waste awareness displays on campus, and especially those of you pledged to live waste-free during RecycleMania; it has a huge impact on the people around you - one of our campus departments was inspired by your stories and decided to do it for a whole week. You are also responsible for inspiring us to create the objective of becoming a zero waste uOttawa by the year 2020; wh...

It’s that time of year again, the time we all dread as students, where our days are filled with the sounds of turning pages, scribbling notes, slurping coffee, and punctuated by breaks for mowing down food. If you are anything like I was in first year while living in rez, you haven’t even started thinking about packing to go home because you have been so stressed with exams. If so, great! This means that when you are last-minute throwing your stuff together that hopefully you will have read this and rather than tossing unloved possessions into a big black garbage bag that instead you will put them aside for the Dump n’ Run. The things you leave behind could include clothes, electronics, kitchenware, office stuff, books, non-perishable food, or anything that is not too large (no big pieces of furniture, Jon’s back is bad as it is) that we will be able to donate to local charities. Last year we managed to pick up 3.18 tonnes of stuff and we hope to surpass that this year in terms of...

Spring has sprung, and with it has come a flurry of bikes hitting the streets for the first time since the icy pavement drove them into winter hibernation. It also comes with numerous cars less than eager to have to share the road again, and maybe slightly out of practice with road etiquette. So, I come to you, in honour of new and seasoned cyclists alike, who find this unseasonably warm weather to be really greasing their chains, but are fearful of being derailed by aggressive motorists on the roads, to remind everyone of a few basic tips to keep cyclists safe on the road. Always signal . Make sure that you signal and brake properly and far enough in advance to respect the needs of cyclists on the road. Be patient. Cyclists are slower to start at intersections than cars, this does not make it okay to veer around them, instead just wait a moment. Remember good things come to those who wait. Look both ways before you open your doors . Car doors are a cyclist’s enemy. Opening yo...

Au mois de février et mars 2011, nous avons fait une étude dans la cafétéria à l’UCU. Il y avait 7 stations de recyclage, avec des petites affiches, et des trous semblables.  Nous avons trouvé que : En moyenne, 85 bouteilles sont jetés ou recyclé par heure*; En moyenne, 28 contenants compostable sont jetés dans la poubelle par heure; 67 % des gens ne trient pas leurs articles correctement dans la cafétéria; 84 % des articles emporté aux comptoirs par les employés sont mal-triés *tous ces articles étaient jetés à la fin de la journée, donc, même si le tri était bien fait, 85 bouteilles se faisaient jetés par heure. Cette étude a justifié l’achat d’une station de tri pour tous les types de recyclage, la vaisselle, les cabarets, etc. avec des grandes d’affiches simples et de la couleur. Suite à l’installation de la nouvelle station de recyclage dans la cafétéria à l’UCU.  Au mois de mars 2012, nous avons refaite l’étude sur la contamination. Nous avons trouvé que :...

Bonjour M. Ravignat, Je vous écris aujourd’hui pour vous exprimer ma déception concernant l’annulation des fonds fédéraux pour le programme Katimavik, ainsi que les autres coupures aux programmes environnementaux. Aujourd’hui, je suis encore une fois embarrassée d’être Canadienne. Je travaille au bureau du développement durable à l’Université d’Ottawa et nous avons toujours accueilli des participants du programme Katimavik; plus de 30 jeunes ont passé dans notre bureau depuis 2007. Comme vous le savez, les programmes écologiques sont presque toujours les derniers items sur la liste de fonds, et la première chose que l’on coupe lorsqu’il manque un peu d’argent (Table ronde nationale sur l’environnement et l’économie, le Protocol Kyoto…). Nous avons dû travailler extrêmement fort pour accomplir tous les projets, les nouvelles politiques, etc. écologiques à l’Université d’Ottawa. C’est très clair que nous ne pourrions jamais être l’a où nous sommes sans l’aide précieuse des parti...

I messed up once during the week I pledged to go waste free. I tossed my dental floss in the garbage can and it wasn’t until I was walking around campus with a container of orange peels to compost that I realized I hadn’t even thought if that floss was recyclable. After a quick investigation online I found out that floss is not recyclable, which makes sense since mine seems like minty-scented nylon. Turns out, lots of big-name floss actually contains polytetrafluoroethylene, the same stuff that coats non-stick cookware, and its production is pretty bad for the environment. Who knew? A friend of mine suggested using hair, but I really don’t think I’m up for that just yet. The internet did, however, abound with suggestions on what to do with my used dental floss. People wash it (the best method apparently is to soak it in a container with soap), and then they reuse it. Either as reusable dental floss or to wrap packages, to tie plants in their garden, slice delicate food, sew buttons...

WTF!?!?! I just finished reading the article "Katimavik Cuts..." from the Huffington Post ( click here to read ). I don't normally take many political stances but this is just too extraordinary to not talk about. The next federal budget could dictate the existence of the Katimavik program! If you know anything about our office you will know that Katimavik volunteers are the backbone of our operations. They literally make this place work. Without them.... actually I don't even want to think about that right now. Every time a new group of Katimavik volunteers start working for us, I give them the same speech. I tell them that "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" (thank you mister Thomas Edison). I tell them that anyone can have a good idea but making good ideas happen is what makes Katimavik so special. And "persperate" they do. Our participants are crucial to several of our programs. This past year we had Katimavik manage our Dum...

(water fountain at the University of Ottawa) So last week was World Water Day and I have to ask a question, what did you do to celebrate? I know what you are thinking, "World Water Day... Are you serious?" You know, on a level I definitely feel you. Sure, water is super important, but come on... why not start celebrating air, or sunlight, or language? We are pretty spoiled here in Canada when it comes to a lot of things and I think that water is at the top of that list. We so take it for granted that it is basically forgotten that people used to have to take staggered showers not even a century ago. We hear about things like drought in the Prairies, but it is an alien concept to most of us. If you want to flush a toilet, you don't even think twice. If you need water to drink, you go to a tap or buy it at a store. The idea that there was simply no more water does not compute in our minds. The one beautiful thing about water is that we still recognize that it is v...

click here to see the full image Polythene bags are very popular with both retailers and consumers. They are strong, lightweight, functional and hygienic means of carrying items. Though they are a modern convenience that we cannot do without, they are a menace. Around the world, this menace is showing its impact now. Not totally excluding the impact of other reasons like green house gases, pollution and deforestation, polythene has a much greater impact. As for me being an international student at University of Ottawa, I’ve come realise a lot of things. When I was a kid, we had this old age tradition to take our own shopping bags even for little stuff may be just fruits or vegetables. We would have exclusive bags, could be handmade or recycled or cloth that were beautifully painted or embroidered. I never understood why my grandma was always against getting any polythene bag home. As I grew older, finding out why a polybag was not good, I came across a lot of strange facts that ...

Au début du mois de Février, je me suis engagée de vivre sans déchets pendant 2 mois. Avec assurance, je croyais finir ce défi sans problèmes et sans découragements. Je savais très bien que à ma maison j’avais un système organisationnel assez clair et efficace : dans toutes les pièces où se trouve une poubelle, j’avais aussi mis en place une boite pour le recyclage et une poubelle à composte qui réclamait une grande majorité des moussoirs utilisés. Donc, mes colocataires aussi indirectement participaient. Au travail, j’avais caché la poubelle, installé un bac de composte et réservé une espace pour les trucs à recycler. À l’école, c’était assez facile, il y a plusieurs stations de recyclage avec la possibilité de recycler tous les plastiques (oui, j’apportais mes plastiques de chez moi à l’école) et il y a aussi plusieurs bac de composte. Les problèmes se venus avec les sortis chez les amis et dans les restaurants. J’ai réalisé d’en fait je ne mangeais pas très souvent à la m...

Recyclemania is slowly coming to an end, leaving in its’ trail optimists, newly enthusiastic recycling addicts, guilt-ridden consciences and some very frustrated people. I’ve noticed that many people having taken the pledge realise how much we actually throw out (and buy), and how we could collectively make a difference. I absolutely agree and often get frustrated when I see paper in the trash can. But I think it’s time for some high fives and thumbs up. Anyone who took the pledge is awesome in my books. Anyone who became mindful about recycling and composting also get an A. And everyone who just tried a tiny bit to have better recycling habits is pretty darn cool. Why are all these people equally cool in my mind? Because we’re all different. We have different backgrounds, come from different places and don’t all have the same mentality. For example, in the music department, I often hear “purists” bashing about “wanna be musicians”. Which basically mean they do not accept someon...

It is that time of the year again, when millions of Canadians hold their breath, squeeze all their hopes into the pit of their stomachs, and roll up the rim to see if they win. The problem is that the only thing we are actually winning is a crappier planet. Roll up the Rim to Win has been the bane of my existence for the past decade. The University of Ottawa, like every other University, has a disposable cup problem: there are too many of them to put a fine point to it. Many, if not the majority of disposable coffee cups, are tossed directly into the garbage on campus. There is a general misconception that coffee cups are covered with so much wax that they can’t be recycled (I can’t blame anyone, what is that stuff on the inside of the cup that is super shinny and stops water from leaking out of it?). Otherwise, people understand that you can recycle them and they do just that... except that they do it while the cup is still half full of coffee. That means that the coffee so...