UOS | Facilities Maintenance Operations | Recycling

Thriftiest Year Ever!

For the first time since 1989 when we began tracking our tonnage, Harvard's trash has dipped below 8,000 tons.  This is despite growing 50% in square footage during the same period.  During move-out, undergraduate residential trash fell to 52 tons this year.  In 1989, this figure was 289 tons.  Recycling and collection of reusables for the Habitat for Humanity Stuff Sale are the main factors in this dramatic shrinkage.   Our recycling rate finished the year at 50%, also a new record. 

Harvard Habitat for humanity Sales

SPEAKING OF STUFF SALES... Dates for this year's sales are below.  All sales will occur at the Harvard Science Center Lawn, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA.  If you'd like to do some earlybird shopping at HHH's warehouse and see 20,000 square feet of furniture and dorm supplies, please contact Captain Irina Perjar: iperjar(at)fas.harvard.edu

All sales support HHH's mission to provide housing for the needy:
Sat & Sun        Aug 23-24       9 AM – 3 PM
Sat & Sun        Aug 30-31       9 AM – 3 PM
Sat – Wed        Sept 6-10         9 AM—3 PM
Sat & Sun        Sept 13-14       9 AM—3 PM

 

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Kudos to Fernando Viesca of the Music Building, who successfully found a recipient for 36 surplus wooden Windsor chairs!  Fernando inventoried and photographed them, and sent the digital picture to several Harvard contacts.  Within minutes, a taker was located on campus and the chairs were saved!  This world-wide web is a powerful force for finding a new home for surplus goods.  Ask us if you need help using on-campus or off-campus web services.

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SingleStream is here!

Recycling at Harvard is easier than ever! We can now put PAPER TOGETHER WITH CONTAINERS in the same SingleStream barrels, bins and bags. All office papers, news, books, mail and magazines can mix with flat cardboard boxes as well as bottles, cans, cups and containers made of glass, metal or plastic. New sorting technology will sort it all out with only a 3% discard rate. We still want you to put in no food or beverage residue, no plastic foams or bags, no unmarked plastics, no napkins, no tissues, no paper cups, and no other residuals in with recycling. You should be using your trash bin less than your recycling bin now! We hope this will raise our recycling rate from 47% last year to well over 50% next year. "TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!"

"If it can't be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production."
~Ecology Center, Berkeley

Thanks for reducing, reusing and recycling!

August 2008 - View Archive

August Harvard Recycling Update

Santa has his sleigh. "Jimmy Claus" had his truck. Dec 2004

We are terribly sad to announce the sudden death of Harvard FMO RECYCLING SERVICES DRIVER JIM KNOPP on 7-12-08.  Jim was friendly, courteous, efficient, thorough and reliable.  He knew how to move and store heavy furniture and equipment for re-use, which would have been discarded as trash without his efforts.  Jim was instrumental in starting our Surplus Distribution program, through which over $10 million of reusable furniture has been directed for re-use on campus or donated to non-profit organizations and needy individuals.  His efforts to retrieve moving boxes all year long enabled the undergraduate Environmental Action Committee to sell boxes at Move-out, which raised $9,000 to support their activities.  Jim won the "Harvard Hero" award in 2004.  Finally, Jim's moving and warehouse expertise was the main reason that Harvard Habitat for Humanity increased revenues from its annual Stuff Sale from $12,000 in 2000 when Jim started to $92,000 last year.  These funds have made it possible for HHH to send volunteers to build housing for the homeless from Lowell MA to Mississippi, New Orleans, South America and Africa.  Jim recruited several members of his family to help at the Stuff Sales.  His wife Chrissy, who died this April, volunteered as long as her health allowed it.  Jim's family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to Harvard Habitat for Humanity, c/o Jim's daughter Kris-Ann Sullivan, 36 Grandview Drive, North Attleboro, MA 02760.

Other News

PRESIDENT DREW FAUST COMMITS TO SLASHING HARVARD'S GHG's: We are delighted that President Faust announced a University-wide goal of carbon neutrality, including cutting Harvard's greenhouse gas emissions by 30% of 2006 levels by 2016. Read more here

PRINCETON REVIEW SAYS HARVARD IS #1: The new "Green Score" rating system announced by the Princeton Review's "Best US Colleges and Universities" report gave Harvard a score of 99 points out of 100. Recycling and waste diversion was one of the criteria included in the judging. Thanks for helping make us (tied for) #1! There were only 10 other campuses in the nation with this score, including the University of Oregon, the University of Washington, and a certain school in New Haven, CT. Read more here

HARVARD RECYCLING MAKES NPR: "Here and Now" of WBUR ran a story about Harvard Surplus Distribution quoting Rob Gogan and a number of our "shoppers." The 5-minute clip highlights how the strong demand for scrap metal has hindered re-use efforts because scrappers remove metal components of furniture and instruments for recycling value. Hear the piece, "When Global becomes Local," via RealPlayer here

FELIX SHOE REPAIR is back in business in the historic Art Nouveau storefront next to Leavitt tobacco at 1304 Mass Ave in Cambridge. Repair and reuse those shoes, sandals, handbags, suitcases and briefcases! Felix's also repairs zippers.

CUT PAPER TOWEL WASTE... Use the new high-tech electric hand dryers! These units consume far fewer resources than single-use paper, even accounting for environmental impacts of electricity generation. Our waste audits have shown that by volume, paper towels are the most common item in Harvard's waste stream. Several buildings on campus are using these super-efficient Here are some choices from GreenSpec. Again, thanks to Julie Cahillane of Northwestern U !

Click here for a list of products

GreenSpec endorses several other models of hand dryers, including:

• Excel Dryer's "Xlerator": (roughly 10 second drying time, "80% energy savings from traditional hand dryers")
• World Dryer Corporation's Airforce: (12 second drying time, "lowest energy usage on the market," 1100W)
• World Dryer Corporation's AirMax: (16 second drying time, "uses half the energy per dry of other dryers," 2300W)
• The Dyson Airblade: (12 second drying time, 1400W of energy as opposed to 2400W of older models, 80% less energy used) See this unit in the first floor of Jefferson Labs ("200" level)!
• The Mitsubishi Jet Towel: (6 second drying time)
• The Zurn AirMax Electric Hand Dryer: (15 second drying time)

Don't trash that IPod! Watch on-line video to try the "5 R's" to save it. For more tips on repairing common appliances, see here.

Waste-busting tip: Use the flip side of a business card instead of a sheet of stationery for quick notes!  A card weighs about 1 gram while a sheet of stationery weighs 5 grams.  The small size of the card requires succinctness, which raises the likelihood that it will be read.  The card is inherently professional, while the hand-written note makes it personal.  Re-use an inter-departmental envelope and you'll save tons and tons of paper and environmental damage!

From the Environmental Resource Center http://www.ercweb.com/home/.  Thanks to Julie Cahillane of Northwestern University for passing this along to us!  When you process a ton of gold ore, you will get about 5 grams of pure gold. When you process a ton of discarded cell phones you will recover approximately how much gold?
a.  10 grams
b.  100 grams
c.  150 grams
d.  150 pounds
Answer:  c

See this provocative video on LABORATORY PLASTIC WASTE REDUCTION by Eva Amsen, a biochemistry graduate student at the University of Toronto.  It's 4:22 long: [URL]

Pope Benedict XVI says THE WORLD'S NATURAL RESOURCES ARE BEING SQUANDERED BY "INSATIABLE" CONSUMPTION and urges people to care more for the environment...Benedict made the comments in a speech to hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered in Australia for the Roman Catholic church's World Youth Day 7-17-08.  He says nonviolence, sustainable development, justice and care for the environment are of vital importance for humanity. 

 

Surplus Furniture Information

SURPLUS FURNITURE and other items are available at our Recycling and Surplus Center in Allston every Thursday 11-2!  If donating furniture, please instruct your movers to contact us 24 hours before delivery < rob_gogan@harvard.edu > so that we can receive and display everything safely.  We can take material only from Harvard buildings which use our waste and recycling services, and we can never receive any trash or hazardous waste.

When donating file cabinets and desks, please unlock, open up and clean out all drawers.  We cannot receive any furniture with unknown contents.  Likewise, please make sure all computers, smart phones and other electronic devices are purged of any confidential information.  Harvard recycling does not shred or otherwise destroy any confidential materials we pick up or that are delivered to the recycling and surplus center.  Thus it is the responsibility of the donor or recycler to make proper arrangements to protect confidential information.  Please call us if you need extra recycling barrels or more pickups when cleaning out offices and furniture. 

Also, please ask us for contact information for confidential destruction vendors serving the campus.

Please keep in mind that parking space limitations force us to be STRICT ABOUT PARKING RULES.  Please respect our neighbors' need to maintain safe traffic flow around the Recycling and Surplus Center .  When here for Thursday's Surplus Distribution, follow the parking monitor’s direction and park only in designated areas.  You may also park in the free spaces in the streets adjacent to the property.  If you are interested in seeing any of the items now available, come to our Recycling and Surplus Center at 175 North Harvard Street in Allston any Thursday from 11 to 2 PM.  A street map showing our location is here:   Everything is free, first-come, first-served and open to everyone. 

This summer we are receiving a steady stream of office furniture and supplies, as well as some residential furniture.  We will resume regular inventories with our August issue.

 

Campus Nature Walk

Thanks to Campus Nature Watchers Rob Farrow, Sonia Ketchian, Krystal Noiseaux & Jonathan Poulin!

• Young male WHITE-TAILED DEER buck charges past Out of Town News, heading quickly down Mass Ave towards Cambridge Common, stunning the loud intersection into confused silence. Science Center witnesses later see it at the east end of Hemenway Gymn across Mass Ave from the Common.
• Large RED-TAILED HAWK lands in the AMERICAN ELM between Mass. Hall and Matthews. In the neighboring tree, a GRAY SQUIRREL descends down the trunk carefully with a small brown furless baby in its mouth, and heads along the ground towards a tree at the corner of Matthews and Grays. Female pedestrian, also carrying a baby, seems to fear that the hawk will attack, because she walks her leashed Dalmation towards the squirrel to make it climb the tree to safety. The squirrel pauses as if weighing the two hazards, then quickly takes the baby back up the tree. The hawk flies there and moves ever closer to the dray. [Pressing meeting prevented our witness from seeing the drama's conclusion].
• Two Red-tailed Hawks screech over Holyoke Center and the Square.
• Recently-fledged red-tailed hawk (offspring of the squirrel hunter above?) perches on a Science Center deck railing, astonishing a graduate student sitting on the other side of the window at his desk about 3 feet away, close enough to see distinguishing details and characteristics of juvenile red tails such as the golden eye color and the brown/grey striped tail, as opposed to the dark brown eye color and the rusty red tail feathers of a typical adult. After about 20 minutes this hawk joins another juvenile on a chimney in the Yard where they appear to play with a stick... On another late afternoon the two juveniles visit various Science Center deck ledges and hang out together calling, calling and calling, presumably so that their parents know how to find them when they have caught some food.
• Adult GRACKLE feeds squealing youngster behind Wadsworth House.
• BROWN CREEPER forages in front of the Museum of Comparative Zoology makes his way around the trunk of an Oak tree.
• A DRAGONFLY flies resolutely across Quincy St. to the Fogg.
• Two CHIMNEY SWIFTS soar over the Yard.
• A female CARDINAL Tsuk-tsuks in a bush near Emerson. Nearby, a male Cardinal flits from one tree to a taller one near the Faculty Club, calling and singing.
• A spotted juvenile ROBIN learning to fly close to Robinson is watched over by an adult [its proud parent?] from a close distance.
• The huge half of an old HONEY LOCUST snaps off at the corner of Matthews facing Straus. Yellow tape marks the danger zone.
• An elegant MOCKINGBIRD perches often in the vicinity of 17 Sumner Road [near its nest?].
• The merry chirping of CHIMNEY SWIFTS livens the airspace over Pusey and Lamont Libraries.
• CHIPPING SPARROW sings loudly and vibrates its tail in an AUSTRIAN PINE at the corner of Loeb House.
• WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH continuously calls in an Elm at the Widener side of Emerson.
• Two CHICKADEES vocalize in the KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE at the side of the Sackler. 
• Several CEDAR WAXWINGS call from a tree in front of the MCZ.
• Pink rosebushes and some purple flowers bloom between 17 Sumner and
  the Middle Eastern building.
• Mountain Laurel blooming for Commencement still shows gorgeous blossoms into July in front of Emerson and the Quincy Street corner of Robinson. 
• Dark purple irises bloom in front of Lamont. 
• BALTIMORE ORIOLE flies over a WILD TURKEY and large EASTERN COTTONTAIL RABBIT.  Oriole lands in one of the short trees in the middle of Aldrich and a Robin quickly chases it away.
• SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES flash their yellow black-rimmed wings between the Design School and CGIS-North towards the green behind them.  Swallowtails also flit across the Sever quadrangle and cross Quincy St. to the Fogg. 
• The white Japanese lilacs around 17 Sumner Road erupt in full fragrance.
• FLOWER GARDENS in front of Loeb House show faithful attentions of volunteer staff.
• Orange DAY LILIES bloom at the entrance to 17 Sumner and a June berry bush (?) keeps the Robins and squirrels happy with its little red rounded berries.



Thanks to Campus Nature Watchers Adam Blanchette, Jim Boyd, Betsey Cogswell, Malcom Glenn, Sam Jacobs and Sonia Ketchian!