UOS | Facilities Maintenance Operations | Recycling

Take the Blackstone Virtual Tour!

See why this building won Harvard's first LEED Platinum certification:
Link >>

---

FREE SURPLUS FURNITURE and other items are available at our Recycling and Surplus Center in Allston every Thursday!  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.  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 except 6-7-07 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. 

July 2009 - View Archive

July Harvard Recycling Update

Photo courtesy of Al Takeda

New recycling record for FY09!

New recycling record for FY09!  Despite the reduced generation of newsprint, bottles & cans due to the general economic slowdown, Harvard has recovered over 100 tons more recyclables in FY09 than in FY08.  We think recycling here is bucking the national trend because of our single-stream specifications and expanded composting.  Though we don't have final trash numbers yet, we project a drop in trash of at least 500 tons.  This will mean both an increase in our recycling rate of at least 2% and a decline in our overall refuse (trash + recyclables) of at least 2% over the previous year.  Thanks as always, all you reducers, reusers and recyclers!

Harvard students discard LEAST MOVE-OUT TRASH in recent history!  In 1989, the first year for which we have records, Harvard students discarded a total of 289 tons of trash at Move-out time.  That's before we had any significant recycling or Donation Stations for reusables.  By last year, we were down to 49.80 tons.  This year, thanks to even greater recycling and donation recovery, Harvard students tossed only 37.91 tons.  That's a reduction of almost 24%!  Hooray!  Thanks to the REPs and their "Green Move-out" program (led by Brandon Geller from the Office for Sustainability), the Dorm Crew (led by Robert Woolfreys of FMO), FAS Physical Resources (especially the House Superintendents, Anthony Pacillo & Bob Byrne), Harvard Habitat for Humanity (led by Captain Lydia Karch), Harvard Taiwanese Leadership Conference volunteers (who helped us clean up the warehouse before Memorial Day), FMO Custodians (led by Marie Holcombe, Augusto Arevalo, Raul Andino & Associate Director Jason Luke), Harvard Real Estate Services (especially Carolee Hill, Joe Jones, Gail Olivier & Joe Ribas), FMO Landscape Services (including Joe Rebeiro, Paul Smith and Manager Wayne Carbone), our curbside recycling contractor Save That Stuff (especially driver Julio Tejada), and our trash contractor Allied Waste Services (especially drivers Buzzy Hayden and Brian Shaker).

Harvard Senior Dinner Yields 93% Recycling

HARVARD SENIOR DINNER YIELDS 93% RECYCLING the Tuesday of Commencement Week!  Enthusiastic efforts of Harvard Dining Service led by Dave Seley and Harvard Alumni Association led by Michele Blanc lived up to the “Zero Waste” billing.  The 30 yard trash dumpster ordered for the event, which had overflowed from this event in previous years, this year stood completely empty.  Notable recycling successes also occurred at Harvard Law School (65% recycling rate), the Divinity School, and for the 35th reunion events.  Read the Gazette article about the new commitment to more recycling and greener reunions:

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/06.04/green.html

DEP Recycling Audit

We regret to report that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection audited a Harvard trash compactor dumped by Allied Waste in March of this year and found too much recyclable cardboard inside (>5% or more by weight of the total contents).  This will result in a public announcement that Harvard University failed to recycle, and if repeated, will result in a fine.  We believe that this must have been an uncharacteristic load, since this particular building is equipped with the busiest cardboard baler on campus.  During the academic year, the building never fails to send out at least two 400-lb bales of corrugated for recycling.  Nevertheless, the DEP does indeed audit our trash regularly, and we ask that you recycle all 13 mandatory recyclables (see list here < http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/solid/wbanmuni.pdf > so we can PRESERVE THE UNIVERSITY’S HARD-WON REPUTATION for excellent recycling and avoid citations.

Other News:

Read about the achievements of the HBS Green Team!  Kathy Randel writes about her evolution from recycling volunteer to becoming the Green Team rep for her building and its 250 occupants:
http://sustainableink.org/2009/06/09/an-inside-look-at-the-greening-of-harvard-business-school/

GREENER LABS ANNOUNCES PLUG-IN TIMER GIVE-AWAY!   Write for details on how any FAS lab can get a plug timer for free if they put it on a device that will save a significant amount of energy, e.g. coffee machines, water coolers, and some types of lab equipment.  < philip_kreycik@harvard.edu >  "Greener labs are no longer an oxymoron!"  Thanks to Philip Kreycik and the rest of the Green Labs team for expanding the number of labs that recycle pipet tip boxes and recover food scraps for composting!

Harvard Recycling in Allston!  Read about our fun day showing local kids how to make paper at the Sustainability Day at Allston Farmers Market, where locally-grown fresh produce and baked goods are sold at 219 Western Avenue in Allston every Friday from 3 - 7 PM.  See photo by Mike Conner.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/allston/news/business/x863178986/Harvard-Allston-Farmers-Market-offers-fruits-veggies-sustainable-living

If you have an upcoming construction or renovation project, contact us to try to make arrangements to SALVAGE BUILDING MATERIALS FOR REUSE.  We have some on-campus and off-campus resources to help you and your contractor recover the maximum fraction for reuse.  Thanks to Julie Horvath for spotting all those discarded shelving planks in the dumpster that could have been used around the corner if only we'd known about them!  Likewise, if summertime moves reveal usable but unwanted OFFICE SUPPLIES or furniture, please let us know.  We hate throwing away anything useful!

BAMBOO KEYBOARDS!  See how Jiangqiao Bamboo and Wood has fashioned a computer keyboard out of sustainably grown bamboo instead of petro-plastic:
http://sustainablog.org/2009/05/07/chinese-bamboo-keyboard-manufacturer-a-local-green-design-leader/

HEET Barnraising – Saturday, July 18, 12:30 to 5:00 pm, 310 Pearl Street and 92-96 Henry Street, Cambridgeport.  The Home Energy Efficiency Team will help weatherize two homes and teach weatherization skills to participants.  The worklist includes weatherizing doors with Qlon, sealing the bandjoist (where the foundation meets the house), using caulk and sprayfoam to stop air penetration & leakage.  To sign-up, go to HEET sign-up site or contact Steve Wineman at swineman@gis.net or 617-876-4753

See Saturday Night Live's "Don't Buy Stuff!" --a timeless clip from 2006 revealing the secret to living debt-free.  At the same time, reduce the environmental impacts from manufacturing and discarding the things you cannot afford!  Thanks to Todd Walker of Progressive Asset Management for the tip.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff

"There is romance in scrap.  The ancient alchemist sought to turn the baser metals into gold, not understanding as we do now that transmutation is chemically imossible.  But the scrap industry has solved the problem from another direction, and scrap is transmuted into the gold that industry is willing to pay for service in presenting the scrap in form and condition to be used again."  --George H. Manlove, "Scrap Metals" (thanks to Chris Johnson for passing long this cherry old tome from 1918).

CAMPUS NATURE WATCH

• CHIMNEY SWIFTS chirp and soar high above the Yard. 
• Fledgling RED TAILED HAWKS delight scores across campus as they try out their new feathers.  Trio perches on Jefferson Laboratory roof not far from the WHITE PINE nest on Oxford Street near Pierce Hall.  [One of the same?] hawk fledgling squawks from the peak of the Weld Hall for his parents until one of them quickly came by for a feeding.  See stunning photos by Al Takeda.
• Numerous CHICKADEES call in the oak at the back entrance to Widener.
• ROBIN AND SPARROWS dine on the Juneberry Bush’s little round red berries.
• Juneberry also nourishes MOCKINGBIRD flying in from the Loeb Theater in Radcliffe Yard.
• AMERICAN GOLDFINCH flies between the trees of Dana Palmer House and the Faculty Club with a stopover at the lamp in between as if seeking a nesting spot. 
• MOURNING DOVE at 17 Sumner hatches a third brood, this time with two… second fledgling lingers for two days after its elder sibling has flown, then also heads off on its own.
• TIGER SWALLOWTAIL butterfly flits in front of the Sackler Museum on the Cambridge St. side… large white butterfly also flashes at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
• DAY LILIES at the entrance to 17 Sumner are tall and elegant.
• MOUNTAIN LAURELS range from dark pink to white in front of Emerson and the golden green Tulip Tree by the gate opposite the Fogg that delighted Commencement participants are still in bloom. 
• KOUSA DOGWOOD with flat white flowers blooms well into June at Emerson and at the side of University Hall.  Now JAPANESE WHITE LILACS are in full flower at 17 Sumner.
• Thanks to Campus Nature Watchers Sonia Ketchian, Melissa Smith and Al Takeda!

Thanks for reducing, reusing and recycling!