UOS | Facilities Maintenance Operations | Recycling

SingleStream Recycling is coming!

Starting 7-1-08, all paper, cardboard, bottles, cans, cups and containers can be mixed together in the same containers from any Harvard building served by Harvard Recycling.  “But won’t the paper get too dirty to recycle?” you may worry.  The answer is no!  MIXED RECYCLABLES GET SEPARATED with amazing precision into 15 categories at the FCR recycling plant in Auburn, MA.  See this 4-minute video clip showing how a similar facility sorts everything out.  The Auburn plant has only a 3% out-throw rate, which means that 97% of the commodities they sort are clean recyclables shipped to industries in this country and around the world:

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Related News

SUMMER RECYCLING INTERNSHIP opportunities are available in Minneapolis and Fairfax County, Virginia !

See a trash incineration facility in Wareham with MassRecycle!  Covanta's SEMASS trash incineration and electrical plant will open its doors for a tour Wednesday, May 14 at 11am in West Wareham, MA.
Register here

The US achieved 56% PAPER RECYCLING according to the American Forestry and Paper Association.  According to our Waste Audits, Harvard is recovering about the same amount of paper for recycling.  Let's all help the push towards the new goal of 60% recycling rate, which is the new goal of both the AF&PA and also of Harvard Facilities Maintenance Operations.

There are trace amounts of MERCURY in most household BLEACH brands.  Read more here

CALCULATE YOUR CARBON release at this nifty calculator provided by the Environmental Defense Fund

"Only the disciplined pursuit of greenest approaches to fishing will help resolve destructive policy conflicts between the fleet, its regulators, and the environmental watchdog groups monitoring both, favoring instead more productive cooperation."
~Philip C. Bolger & Friends

Thanks for reducing, reusing and recycling!

May 2008 - View Archive

May Harvard Recycling Update

Aerial Photo of Harvard University - Special Thanks to the Harvard University Planning Office

RecycleMania Competition!

HARVARD BEATS IVIES for the "Gorilla Prize" for most tons recycled in the 2008 RecycleMania competition!  We rose a notch in the final week to finish at #2 in the nation behind Stanford (and we generated far less trash per capita than the Palo Alto school).  We finished no lower than second place in every category in the Ivy League.  Thanks for all your recycling help to give us the "finishing kick" we needed! 

We sincerely congratulate the NATIONAL RECYCLEMANIA WINNERS which entered their entire campuses.  For HIGHEST PER CAPITA RECYCLING rate: 1.  Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI; 2.  U.S. Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT; 3.  Truman State University, Kirksville, MO; 4.  Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY; 5.  Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.  For LOWEST PER CAPITA TRASH generation rate:  1.  North Lake College, Irving, TX; 2.  Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA; 3.  Tacoma Community College, Tacoma WA; 4.  Lane Community College, Eugene, OR; 5.  Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.  

See the complete results here: http://www.recyclemaniacs.org/results.aspx

Boston Sample Drop

The Boston Sample Drop | Shop event will offer free interior design material samples art teachers, artists, and others wanting to get free materials for projects. It's a fun way to keep useful materials circulating and out of the trash bin.

Where: Boston Design Center, Drydock Ave loading dock, Boston When: "Shop" times are Friday 5/9, 4 - 7pm and Saturday 5/10, 9am- 4pm. More details: www.greengoat.org/ Help us out and bring your own canvas bag!

Help us out and bring your own canvas bag!

Harvard Surplus Distribution Center 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:  http://makeashorterlink.com/?J3AA250B3.  Everything is free, first-come, first-served and open to everyone. 

Campus Nature Walk

Thanks to Campus Nature Watchers Nora Dahl, Rob Furrow, Carolyn Jones, Sonia Ketchian, Lori Nelson, Art Strauss, Bob Stymeist, Tsuyoshi Takahashi, and Jeremiah Trimble!

• Pair of EASTERN COTTONTAIL RABBITS nibbles on myrtle blooming among the shrubbery at the Spangler Center.
• WILD TURKEY roams around in front of the MCZ building eating some grass… Another wild turkey saunters through the First Science construction site in Allston near Seattle Street.
• Flock of at least 25 CEDAR WAXWINGS congregates for three consecutive days by Peabody Terrace. 
• Three PINE WARBLERS and a CAROLINA WREN call among the pines at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences… Pine warbler also sings in front of the Harvard Natural History Museum.
• Two fuzzy black MOURNING DOVE chicks disappear and the female is sits on new eggs… Happier Mourning Dove family hatches two “Dovelettes” (“Lovey” and “Dovey”) in a nest atop an air conditioner at the Bureau of Study Counsel.
• BALTIMORE ORIOLE sits in one of the flowering crab apples on Oxford Street.
• HOUSE FINCHES nest on top of the air conditioners at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
• DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANTS dip and dive around Weld and Newell Boathouses [fishing for returning Alewives?].
• HOUSE FINCHES nest around 34 Oxford Street.  Male house finch sings its proud territorial song from the crest of a maple tree by Ohiri Field.
• BLACK-CAPPED CHICADEE pecks at a sunflower seed in the cherry tree outside
  the Dunster House entrance.
• DOWNY WOODPECKER creeps up a tree at Peabody Terrace.
• MOCKINGBIRD runs through its repertoire in a holly tree in Dunster Courtyard.
• Two REDTAILED HAWKS soar in circles above the Dunster tower.
• The Rosebud trees in front of the Barker Center bloom in deep
  vibrant pink. 
• HARVARD FISHING DERBY!  Please let us know length and species of any fish caught and released (or caught and eaten) from the Charles River.  Eligible fishing zones include any waters downstream from Watertown Dam to Charles River Locks.  If you catch the biggest fish (preferably proven with digital photo) you could win a prize!
• YARD IDYLL:  Small bush with big white magnolias blooms in front of Wadsworth House.  Behind the house, azaleas pop.  Cardinal singing his spring song high in the white oak near Sever on the Quincy side is admired as their state bird by a student from Ohio and one from Illinois.  A Bluejay in
  front of 17 Sumner imitates as best he can the shrieking of a Red-tailed Hawk.  Noisy Downy woodpecker lands high in a tree on the Quincy St. side of Emerson.  Two tall trees on either side of the Thayer entrance opposite Memorial Chapel have fully opened large white magnolia blossoms.  A tree full of pink blossoms graces the front of Loeb hall.  Royal blue scilla flowers spring up behind Boylston Hall and a Mockingbird in a tree in front of Lamont sings through his long list of bird songs.
• Two elegant Mockingbirds foraging under the bush of Middle Eastern
  Studies promise little ones.
• PINE WARBLER sings from the WHITE PINE that is in front of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.  Hear his subtle song here: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i6710id.html
• Magnolia blooms appear among the buds in the trees between Grays and Matthews.  Forsythias bloom along the side of the gate facing Science Center.
• SEE FAITH AND SCIENCE AGREE TO CARE FOR CREATION and fight climate change in the "Time 100."  Eric Chivian, HMS Professor and Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment, and Richard Cizik, head of the Office of Government Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, sit together on the banks of the Charles near the Beren Tennis Center opposite Gerry's Landing, a three-acre woodland of  birch, willow and alder, while a pair of Canada Geese and a sculling crew from Northeastern University cruise by.[URL]
• Of the thousands of flowering plants in Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, only one, the lilac, is singled out each year for a daylong celebration.  LILAC SUNDAY occurs 5-11-08 from 10 AM to 4 PM.  See this link for directions on the T:
  http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/visitors/directions.html