UOS | Facilities Maintenance Operations | Recycling

Take the Sustainability
Pledge!

Visit the Office for Sustainability's website and commit to one or more actions that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions this year!  Waste reduction, reuse and recycling are among the many options.  The goal this year is 10,000 pledgers!  The OFS will donate $1.50 towards renewable energy for every pledge received by 12-31-08.

Last year's pledgers earned a new $12,000 solar electricity panel for the roof of the Dudley Coop residence at 3 Sacramento Street!  To pledge or read more, click here

The Surplus Distribution Program

Remember the classic Yankee jingle about thrift?  "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!"  Let us help you live up to this green old rule by taking advantage of our Surplus Distribution program.  Several Harvard departments have saved money and helped the environment by picking up used desks, swivel chairs, file cabinets and other furniture at our SURPLUS DISTRIBUTION Center.  Come visit us to see if we have what you need before you buy new.  We distribute to the public every Thursday at 175 N. Harvard Street in Allston (read details here).  We will open up at other times for Harvard departments taking 10 items or more.  Of course, we will open any weekday for moving trucks delivering donations.  We will also open up for other non-profits by special appointment.  Everything is always available free to everyone on a first-come, first-served basis.  

The hawk of blackstone

RED-TAILED HAWK perches among golden autumn foliage at 46 Blackstone Street Bioswale. Thanks to Wayne Carbone for the photo!

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Second, PUT THOSE COINS TO WORK with the automatic coin-counter at the Credit Union's 16 Dunster Street, Cambridge branch.  HUECU cites an estimate that the average U.S. household has $90 in loose change lying around the house.  Deposit it or get paper money in exchange at no cost!

Check out the CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN DREAM and their wonderful suggestions on how to simplify the holidays.  Now that we are in an economic slump, this feisty crew's advice on thrifty living is more important than ever.  Their motto?  "More fun, less stuff!"  See their most recent posting here

Read about the voyage of the JUNK PLASTIC RAFT!  Marcus Eriksen sailed from California to Hawaii on a raft buoyed by nets filled with sealed plastic bottles to publicize the problem of plastic trash in the Pacific.  So recycle those plastic bottles and avoid all single-use plastic that isn't biodegradable! Link

 

 

"It's clear that much good can come from learning to do with less. FAS is embracing the values of conservation and wise use of resources to minimize the impact of choices we make today on future generations."
~ Dean Michael D. Smith
Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences
quoted in the Harvard Crimson 11-26-08

Thanks for reducing, reusing and recycling!

December 2008 - View Archive

December Harvard Recycling Update

Photo courtesy of Jason Benjamin

BEST RECYCLING EVER!  Harvard recovered 54.19% of its refuse for recycling in October 2008.  This is the highest monthly recycling rate we have ever recorded!  Thanks for helping to send us way above 50%.  Not only are we recycling more than at this point last year (+ 3%), we are also discarding much less trash (-6%).  Thanks for reducing, reusing and recycling!

A Double win at the Harvard-Yale Game

Harvard Athletics sponsors BEST TAILGATE RECYCLING event in Harvard’s history!  At the Harvard-Yale game this year, 30,000 visitors pitched in to recover 4,600 pounds of cardboard, bottles, cans, cups and containers for recycling!  Thanks to Sharon Lorince, George Langley, Jon Lister and Tim Wheaton from Athletics; Augusto Arevalo and Jason Luke from Facilities Maintenance Operations; a HUGE THANKS to Brandon Geller (who coordinated 16 volunteers on a freezing day!) and Heather Henriksen from the Office for Sustainability; and Harvard undergraduate volunteers Kathrine Casillas, Zach Arnold, Rachel Mak, Rebecca Compton, Kurt Tsuo, Grace Brown, Kate Hoagland, Alyssa Devlin, Jennie McKee, Jennifer Megan, and Serena Zhao, who passed out 3,000 blue recycling bags. (photo caption: Diligent recyclers Andrew Artz and Ivan Chan of MATHER HOUSE recover every single aluminum can for recycling at the last Harvard-Yale tailgate.  Photo: Aaron Allen )

Other News

In addition to Surplus Distribution every Thursday, two locations are hosting FREECYCLE SWAPFESTS! 

Harvard Graduate School of Education is hosting a FreeCycle Swapfest in Conroy Commons on 12-8-08 from 12 - 2.  For details, please contact Kimberly McMahon < mcmahoki@gse.harvard.edu >.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is hosting the FAS SUPPLY SWAP, Wednesday, December 17th from 10:30-1:30 in Lowell Lecture Hall.  One department's trash is another one's treasure!  Members of FAS are invited to donate and shop at this supply swap.  Please bring whatever you can carry - no furniture or large items, please, as employees will be carrying their finds back to their departments.  Please contact Sarah Gordon at sgordon@fas.harvard.edu for more information or if you'd like to help out.

11th annual WASTE AUDIT of undergraduate residences demonstrates a sharp drop in disposal of recyclable paper over last year.  In the 2007 Audit, 22% of the trash was recyclable paper.  This year, paper represented only 17% of the random sample of 32 bags taken from Houses & dorms between 11-6-08 and 11-11-08.  Bottles, cans, cups & containers fell from 24% to 14%.  SingleStream recycling, with simplified recycling steps, is the biggest factor in these happy developments.  These results were publicized at the annual MOUNT TRASHMORE event, which shows one day's trash from Harvard Yard.  President Drew Faust was pleased that thanks to recycling, the pile was only half what it would have been without recycling.  Read the Crimson article here

Electronics recycling grows each year as old CRT monitors and analog TV's are scrapped ahead of the February switch to all-digital broadcasting.  Harvard recycled over 100 tons of computers in FY2008.  Our vendor, the Institution Recycling Network, dismantles and recycles all computers in North America.  All leaded monitor glass is recycled in the U.S.  None contributes to the contaminated Asian markets recently featured on "60 Minutes" (view here ).

Here is the IRN's web page about their computer recycling program.

For an article on an electronics recycler using the same procedures as Harvard's vendor, the Institution Recycling Network, read here »

Do you work or study in a lab?  Learn how to MAKE YOUR LAB GREENER here!  FAS Green Labs Coordinator Philip Kreycik has compiled this list of products and companies that will be friendlier to the planet. Link to PDF

Our friends at Harvard Credit Union have TWO PIECES OF RESOURCE-EFFICIENT AND TIMELY ADVICE in their "News you can Use" letter sent to members last month.  Read how they elaborate on a frugal proverb:

• USE IT UP: Don't buy a new, heavily advertised cleaning product when you have others left over in your cupboards.
• WEAR IT OUT: Keep driving that older vehicle a year or two longer; update last year's wardrobe with a few accessories instead of stuffing your closet with new clothing purchases.
• MAKE IT DO: That flat screen TV is calling you, but there's nothing wrong with the one in your family room.
• DO WITHOUT: Give future purchases a minimum three-day cooling off period; you'll usually find that the item you "had" to have has lost its luster--but you've saved what you might have spent on it.

Take a look at these fabulous artists who work in various reused and recycled materials:  Umbrellas, Corrugated Cardboard, Fasion, Bike parts, Recycled Glass , Reclaimed wood.

US EPA releases its bi-annual report, "Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2007 Facts and Figures."  Our national recycling rate (as part of the municipal solid waste stream) is 33.4%, up from the 31.7 percent achieved in 2005.  Steel cans are recovered for recycling at a rate of 64.3%; paper and paperboard products at 54.5%; aluminum beverage containers at 48.6%; PET-based beverage containers at 36.6%; glass containers at 28.1%; and HDPE containers at 28.0%.  See the report here

 

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 Wayne Carbone, Marge Fisher, Sonia Ketchian, Erika McCaffrey, and Bob Stymeist!

• Harvard Crew Coaches spot EASTERN COYOTE swimming across the Charles River in the vicinity of the Arsenal Bridge in Watertown... [The same?] Eastern Coyote passes in front of a car’s headlights as it circles back toward the river at 1270 Soldiers Field Rd., opting not to cross the road.
• Over 400 RING-BILLED GULLS feed in Soldiers Field and all around the Stadium, enjoying all the scraps left over from tailgaters and fans from "The Game."
• Also feasting at the morning-after avian tailgate party, 36 MOURNING DOVES forage in the fields next to Dillon Field House.
• BLUEJAY calls in the tree on the side of Dunster House...Another Blue Jay flew from Robinson to the tree on the side of the Fogg where a melodious call seems to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving.
• The much-fruited crabapple on top of Pusey Library hosts ROBINS, well over half a dozen HOUSE FINCHES, and STARLINGS feasting on its tiny red apples. 
• In front of Widener a WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH climbs an elm as it calls.
• Hanging from one of the low trees at the corner of 17 Sumner Road, a vacant Paper Wasp's nest exposes its hexagonal comb ... the next day, the work of nature's architects is moved to become inspiration for human designers at the Loeb Library at the Graduate School of Design.