My boss always tells me that the secret to success is to surround yourself with the best people and let them do their thing. This makes sense after all; no one can do everything by themselves. The matter at hand was recycling and building a recycling dream team was less intuitive than one might think. I mean who are the right people to use if you want to complete reform the recycling system on campus? As this little story about building better bins continues I feel it is important to talk about the people that made these bins a reality. Let me tell you that a lot of ideas floated through my mind. I started with hardcore environmentalists but… recycling is a shared common activity so it had to be a colloquial activity. I thought about getting an outside consultant group but… the problems on our campus are unique to our campus and we needed ‘local solutions’. I even thought about getting some business people (who else to take a cold shrill look at recycling on campus and figure out how b...

Today, let’s delve into the idea of stuff. We need stuff. We want stuff. We want stuff we don’t need. Sometimes we realize that. Where does it go? Bingo… When someone realizes they have something they don’t need, the first thought is generally one of a few options: Can I throw it out? Can I sell it? Can I give it away? Unfortunately, not enough people ask themselves how much they need any given item BEFORE they acquire it. But, we can talk about that later. The first question should be: Can I reuse this or use it for something else? Or, Can I give it to someone I know needs it? Failing that, it should be donated…to the free store! Each year, we organize a Dump and Run on campus to account for all of the stuff that residence students (primarily first year university students) decide to chuck when they are moving out. We all know that you bring very little to residence, shop a bit too much during the year, and end up with so much stuff you can’t imagine fitting into your suitcases. That...

When you are assigned the task of making the campus greener by improving the recycling system, you can’t just jump in without some idea of the past. Before diving into a lake there are a couple of things that you have to double check before you plunge in head-first. How cold is the water, how deep, are there are jagged rocks, and are there any leaches? I mean there are more things to consider than just this but let’s not over-kill this analogy. First things first, when did recycling begin on campus? Back in 1992 the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) initiated a bold plan to ensure that landfills wouldn’t start bursting at the seams with waste. The MOE mandated that all academic institutions create plans to divert 60% of their waste under the threat of a fine that could reach up to $4 Million. Luckily uOttawa already had a burgeoning program in place. It was a very simple program with drop-off points and a collection center. Now this system was great and it served the campus well for ov...

While I was a student here I was always extremely disappointed with the recycling system. Of course I never really had a complete picture of everything that was going on. I never knew about the initiation of a recycling program on campus in 1992; I never knew about the night crews that collect and sort waste; and I certainly didn’t know about the politics behind recycling bins. There is so much more to the story than you think and I want to share a little bit about our experience so that others can profit and make the proverbial “better mouse trap”. The title of this little series is ‘building a better bin’ and it is called such because in the pursuit of creating a more responsible society I believe that we can start with a better recycling bin. Our story begins back in 2007 when the University of Ottawa was going through a little bit of a rough patch with regards to green public relations. The Globe and Mail publishes an annual survey about how student perceive the environmental initi...

A couple of months ago I blogged about how uOttawa was going to be involved in Recycle-mania. I was pretty stoked about the idea because I knew that the university was pretty good but I didn’t really have any proof so I was really happy that Brigitte signed us up. I don’t want to sound like I was a worry wart but when you don’t have a point of reference things can seem a little tangled. Imagine my surprise when Brigitte gave me the news. We were 47th in the overall competition. Not bad I thought to myself, not bad at all. I mean when you think about it, this was the first time that we ever entered into the competition, we don’t have any composting, and Brigitte, our waste diversion coordinator, hasn’t even been in her post for 1 full year yet. Now imagine my surprise when Brigitte told me that the organizers had recalculated our results and we had in fact finished 14th overall, not 47th. I was ecstatic! I mean holy crap; we almost broke the top 10 in our first year. And the part that ...

The other day I took a walk through the Vanier Pavilion with some friends. Very soon the building is going to undergo a major renovation and it is going to be almost completely gutted and renewed. So that means that the building has to be completely emptied of its contents. And so when I was touring the building and beginning to make a preliminary assessment of the remaining contents, I was a little shocked to see that there was still a plant left in the building. Now this is going to be a tad dramatic but when I saw the plant from the other side of the locked door I immediately lunged for it. The door was of course locked and I ended up looking kind of foolish. Whatever, at the very least it really upped my greed cred. And then 2 days later I went back and got the plant (things tend to work better when you bring the right set of keys). So this isn’t the first time that either myself or Brigitte has saved plants from abandonment. Vanier is the second building that is going to be revamp...

I have already professed my hatred for litter. I think that it is really the pinnacle of laziness. Let me explain where I am coming from. What I do in my room is my business. If I mess up the kitchen, you know leave a few dishes in the sink or neglect to wipe-down the counter, then that is rude and insensitive to my roommate. The house isn’t just mine. Now if I leave my front lawn in disarray then I am being slothful and disrespectful to my neighbours and their property value. My actions have an impact on others So when some one tosses something on the ground (litters), I see it as one of the most selfish acts possible. You are basically robbing society of its right to a clean environment and depriving the public of beauty. A sprinkling of cigarette butts, a dash of disposable coffee cups, and of course a smidgen of candy wrappers, and you’ve got yourself the fixins’ for one ugly landscape. In fact the only missing element is the cliché free daily newspaper blowing around by like urba...

So it is that time of the year again. The weather is starting to get a little more tolerable, there are green shoots on some of the bushes and trees, and the GOOD IDEAS contest winners have been announced. “What’s the Good Ideas contest?” you are asking yourself. No don’t strain your mind, I will tell you instead. The Good Ideas contest is a competition for students on campus to suggest good ideas that the University should adopt. It began in 2008 with 10 prizes of $1,000 for the best ideas, as judged by a panel of campus community members. This year it is grown to 20 top prizes of $1,000. The contest was mildly ridiculed by some students because of the contest’s ironic tagline “Only one good idea per student”, implying that students were only capable of having one good idea at a time (we certainly wouldn’t want their brains to over heat). But controversy aside (and I use the word controversy very loosely), I heart this competition. It essentially provides me with an unlimited source o...

Today the Ontario Government agreed set into place its long awaited e-waste collection program. Well I may be exaggerated the long awaited part for some people but for others… At the University the Environmental Law Students Association (ELSA) has taken it upon themselves over the past few years to host and coordinate e-waste drives. Certainly a noble cause since so many people are completely clueless about the deep secrets that electronic waste hides. Let me elaborate briefly. 1- E-waste is not like normal waste; once in the landfill it leaks toxic heavy metals which pollute the groundwater. 2- A good deal of e-waste ends up in China or India where peasants live in giant e-waste landfills. The inhabitants “mine” the precious metals in the computers and electronic components. They are exposed to toxic chemicals as they tear apart the components and burn the plastics for heat. And so forth and so on. So, back to ELSA. Last year on Earth Day ESLA helped to host a massive e-waste drive. ...

Smoking bad, not smoking good. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. I think we have all heard this before; second-hand smoke, poor air quality, lies to the public, impotence, and let’s not forget yellow teeth. But there is one specific aspect of a cigarettes that bug me more than anything and that is litter. My parents were smokers. I would go to school everyday smelling like an ash tray. Before they stopped smoking indoors, the house always had this lovely blue fog about it. But that was their choice you see. I didn’t really much care about if people smoked, but how they smoked. It is easy to see how second-hand smoke has a big impact on others and I think many can agree that this is where the line is drawn. Individuals should not suffer because of another’s personal choices. So the thing that gets me is when people toss their cigarettes on the ground. I know that this seems innocuous compared to some of the other dangers of smoking but I can’t shake it. A couple of years ago I was at a co...

I am not going to talk about the debacle of what happened with the U-pass over the past few days. I think that I have already said enough to the press as it is. But what I am going to talk about is the splintered state of public transportation in the City now and moving forward. 53 Days was a long time to be without transit and the good people of Ottawa didn’t take it sitting down. In fact they walked, carpooled, taxied, did whatever was needed to get where they had to go. The world didn’t stop when the busses did and this brought many people to a very important realization. They say that in order to effectuate change, individuals need to be shaken out of dormancy and indifference. Our everyday lives have a way of making us complaisant. I think that the strike was one of those shakes; one of those rare moments that makes us realize that there is another way. The unfortunate thing about this is that transit could be the big loser. As the members of the campus community realize that ther...

“Can’t someone else do it?” For true Simpsons fans this was a memorable moment in television history. Okay maybe it wasn’t monumental but for environmentalists it was pretty fun. In short, Homer wants to become the sanitation commissioner of Springfield . As he struggles to come up with a slogan he stumbles upon the phrase, “Can’t someone else do it?”, which is likely the most insightful phrase about the human condition when it comes to recycling and waste management. Now I am sitting here on campus and I am having the worst time in the world trying to comprehend how to get people to recycle. I have just come back from my second meeting today about trying to make people recycle more, and I should add that these meetings were initiated by campus community members (not me). There is one monumental truth about recycling, it is hard. John Q. Garbagemaker won’t recycle just because the alternative is bad for the environment, or because our landfills are overflowing, or because it is univers...

So this week was actually super packed so please fasten your seat belts and place your seats in the upright position. We ask that you don’t try to get until we have reached our cruising altitude. Last week the University of Ottawa was fortunate enough to have a visit by Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He delivered a lecture about tolerance and intolerance in a post apology area. I secretly wanted to hear someone mention that the land the University stands on is likely stolen land, but there was no such statement. Nevertheless the occasion was marked by the presence of several MPs, including Justin Trudeau. A little known fact is that the University of Ottawa will be hosting 2 massive conferences this summer. Both the meetings have a firm commitment to be more environmentally friendly, green conference is the jargon of the day. On Friday I hired a new student to work solely on green conferences. It is always amazing how many small things can be done to ma...

So every once and a while I fully intend on having guess writers for this crazy thing called blog. This is the first. Thanks Katherine -By Katherine Sullivan- Afin de conserver un brin d’équilibre mental au centre de ce chaos qu’est la grève des autobus d’Ottawa, j’ai du me trouver un passe-temps agréable, afin de braver les bouchons sur la pont, coincée entre un personnage jasant de ses problèmes de couple sur son blackberry et un groupe de jeunes filles discutant le dernier épisode de Loft Story. La classe, je vous dis. J’ai donc essayé la lecture, mais la nausée me monte rapidement à la gorge, et je ne voudrais pas ruiner le manteau de poil de la dame à mes côtés. Les devoirs? Eh bien, je peux vous assurer que compléter un devoir d’harmonie dans l’autobus ressemble à essayer d’enfiler une aiguille dans le noir. Par la suite, il reste l’option de la musique, qui ne me suffit pas. Texter des amis pendant plus d’une heure? Bonjour la tendinite du pouce! C’est alors qu’en faisant un br...

I’ll bet that you have heard something about the anti-bottled water campaign haven’t you? Is bottled water good? There are some redeeming qualities. It can be easily transported to areas that don’t have public utilities (like regions in sub-Saharan Africa or even New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina), it is a safe source of water when water bourn viruses are a problem (like in Walkerton), and it is healthy (you know zero calories and all that). And there is the bad. Coca-Cola has been accused of polluting water basins, Suez has been accused of instigating civil unrest in South America when they privatize public systems, and everybody is being accused of making a mounting of money from a commodity that many people debate is a human right. And there is also the matter that it is only being tested every once and a while (voluntarily I might add), that the plastic bottles they come in leach chemicals into the water, and that buying bottled water undermines confidence in public utilities. H...