SURPLUS AVAILABLE

As of 11-19-09

• LIBRARY BOOKSHELVES-- 28,000 shelf feet available. Must take at least 10,000 feet. Please contact us for details. Please contact us for details
• WOODEN SHIPPING CRATES for large boxes, some with foam padding, up to 4’ x 8’ x 2’.
• DESKS, FILE CABINETS, CHAIRS & MORE!
  

SURPLUS WANTED

• WANTED: A non-profit organization supporting arts in a local public school system is looking for DISPLAY CASES. They are flexible-- they could be the 'trophy case' 6-foot tall type with glass front/sides, or the flat-case types on legs, which could showcase small sculptures or collages. If you have any to donate, Please let us know and we will give you the contact information.
• WANTED: An undergraduate production of "GREASE" needs HIGH SCHOOL STYLE LOCKERS for one of their sets. Please contact us if you have any to spare.
• WANTED: Half lockers. Up to 20 lockers wanted for use in a Harvard building. Do you have some to donate? Please let us know
  

Volunteers include Molly O’Laughlin, Athletics REP Alyssa Devlin, Sam Houston, President Faust, Allan Bradley and REP Coordinator Brandon Geller. Photo by Jon Chase

HARVARD TAKES FIRST PLACE in the US EPA's "Game Day" RecycleMania Competition! At the Harvard-Princeton game on 10-24-09, a joint effort of Harvard Athletics, the Office for Sustainability and Harvard FMO Recycling yielded a Per Capita Recycling Rate of .229 lbs per person. No doubt it was Brandon Geller's heroic dumpster dive to rescue a few unseparated bags of bottles & cans from the trash dumpster that enabled us to beat the Buffs of Colorado by 1 one-thousandth of a pound!. “Good thing my date got cancelled for tonight,” Brandon said as he emerged somewhat besmirched. We heartily endorse his sentiments! Harvard was 2nd in Per Capita Compost, 3rd in overall Waste Diversion and 5th in Waste Reduction.

 

RECYCLING UP, TRASH WAY DOWN

Through the first third of FY10, our campus recycling rate hit 55%, about a half-point better than this time last year. Meanwhile, our trash generation has dropped 18% below last year's total YTD. This is partly due to layoffs (alas), retirements, and the recession. But we cannot let the moment pass without thanking you once again, recyclers of Harvard, for all that recycling, reuse, smarter procurement, and waste reduction! Keep up the good work!

Take the HARVARD SUSTAINABILITY PLEDGE this month!

Last year, over 8,000 members of our campus community committed to improving at least one area of our work routines to enhance Harvard's sustainability. This year, the goal is 10,000! Help the Office for Sustainability keep on living up to the bright green future envisioned by Al Gore and Drew Faust last fall in Harvard Yard before 15,000. For each pledger, Harvard will devote another $1.50 towards sustainable energy on campus. www.green.harvard.edu/pledge

 

CAMBRIDGE GOES SINGLE-STREAM!

The new Request for Proposals of the Cambridge Recycling Division requires the winning bidder to collect basic recyclables mixed together, just like Harvard. As of this July, both our Cambridge and Boston host communities will offer their residents the convenience of recycling papers, bottles, cans and boxes all in one bin or barrel. More details as they unfold.

 

Speaking of our fair city

New measures to control rodents have resulted in the CAMBRIDGE DUMPSTER PERMIT requirement by 1-1-10. All buildings in Cambridge which set out a compactor, dumpster, barrel or other container of over 50 gallons capacity must file for a permit with the Cambridge Inspectional Services Department. Harvard Recycling and Waste Services is coordinating this for all buildings using our service in collaboration with the Environmental Health and Safety Department. Our own Gary Alpert and Gordon Reynolds played key advisory roles in establishing the specifications, which were passed by the Cambridge City Council last month. If we don't set out rodent-accessible food waste, the rodents will not come. Best strategy is to WASTE NO FOOD! Cook only what will be eaten, eat all you take on your plate, and compost all the scraps. We have never seen evidence of rodents getting into a 30-gallon food compost barrel. Click here for the requirements in detail

 

Did you use your pound of salt wisely today?

That's how much was mined on behalf of the average US resident, according to the Mining Information Institute, for road de-icing, food, and chemicals. Read about the 42,719 POUNDS OF MINERALS MINED, plus over 10 tons of coal and petroleum, on behalf of each of us at the MII website here.
We can keep all these minerals where they belong, inside the Earth's crust, by reducing waste, recycling and reusing. Recycling already provides half the metals used in industry today; for steel, the figure is much higher, thanks to our ability to automate sorting of ferrous metals through the use of magnets. LET'S MINE OUR WASTE STREAM INSTEAD OF THE EARTH. That's sustainable mining! To read about a science-based model showing how we can prevent the havoc caused by removing all these minerals from the Earth and putting them into the air, water, and soil, click here. (Thanks to Gretchen Brewer of Earth Circle, who wrote about this in the latest MassRecycle listserve.)

 

PRESIDENT ORDERS 50% RECYCLING RATE

President Obama orders 50% recycling rate by 2015 for US Government agencies as part of the proposed Executive Order 13514, "Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance." Wow, our humble campus met this goal in 2008, seven years ahead of the feds! Read more from the White House here.

 

MILLENIUM ASSESSMENT OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Paul Ehrlich and others at Stanford have announced the MILLENIUM ASSESSMENT OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR, a multi-year project to assess why we do unsustainable things and determine the best way to steer us, and our governments, towards sustainability. Preliminary results of the study will be announced at an international conference in 2011. The study will look for solutions both in the humanities and the natural sciences. Read more at this fascinating site.

 

"MORE FUN, LESS STUFF!"

This holiday season, have "MORE FUN, LESS STUFF!" That's the motto of the Center for the New American Dream. Their wonderful on-line booklet, "How to Simplify the Holidays," has been updated for 2009. You cannot read it without being reminded of fabulous memories of the fun aspects of holiday celebrations. Then you'll learn lots of new ways to celebrate together without spending so much money and creating (ultimately) so much waste! You'll need to register with the CNAD but believe us, it's worth your time.

 

Other News

New York's bottle deposit law expands

New York's bottle deposit law expands to include all water bottles this month. Connecticut has also enacted a similar expansion. Massachusetts may be next. Read more here.

 

ECO-ALPHABET

INFORM's ECO-ALPHABET shows us the ABC's of living lighter on the planet:
www.informinc.org/greenalphabet

 

SAN FRANCISCO MANDATES FOOD SCRAP DIVERSION

As of this month, all Bay Area residential and commercial building owners must contract both for recycling and composting services. The law was passed to assist the city in its objective to reach a 75-percent diversion rate — according to city officials; it is presently at 72 percent. Ultimately, San Francisco's goal is to be zero waste by 2020.

 

"Nudging" people towards Zero Waste!

Read this recent New York Times article about how several municipalities, businesses and institutions, are "Nudging" people way beyond recycling, towards Zero Waste!
www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/earth/20trash.html

 

WE REMEMBER SCOTT

We remember SCOTT SANDBERG, Radcliffe's Recycling King, who died on Mt Washington seven years ago on the day after Thanksgiving. I'm sure Scott would consider it the finest tribute you could pay his memory to recycle something today. Scott, as you climb the celestial peaks beyond, know that we are doing our best to follow your fine example and make every effort to reduce, reuse and recycle!

 

HARVARD CAMPUS NATURE WATCH

• NEW GENERATION WHITE SQUIRREL graces the lawns of 5 Bryant and the Divinity School. Its bushy tail shows a slightly warmer tone than its ancestor last seen in 2006.
  
  
• RED-TAILED HAWK flies up to the medallions on the front-side roof of Widener to perch while human groundlings admire him... Another red-tailed skins and eats a small rodent on the limb of a crabapple tree near Botanic Gardens; see photo:
  
  
• BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE calls as it flies across Quincy Street to a fir tree near Robinson, while a second one remains in a fir between Carpenter Center and the Fogg... Chickadees in the tree at Loeb House call as others cross Quincy Street to the tree tops at the Carpenter Center.
  
  
• DUDLEY GARDEN LUNCHTIME REVERIES: Lovely bird song in the bush mimics long-gone songbirds; suddenly a Mockingbird emerges from shrubbery to perch on the back of the semi-circular bench. Soon after that he flies off to a tree and to his other duties… the next day, a small WASP keeps moving about the Hawthorn tree and the Mockingbird in the dense green bush by the bench mimics a cardinal's tick-tick, a bluejay's call and later on, the shrieking of a red-tailed hawk...
  
  
• WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH calls between Memorial Chapel and Widener. A small wasp flew across Quincy Street.
  
  
• A chipping CARDINAL camouflages his brilliant crimson coat among the clusters of red berries on the crabapple tree on the Mass Ave side of Wigglesworth by the back gate of Widener.
  
  
• Pairs of HOUSE FINCHES and ROBINS feed on the crab apple fruit on the roof of Pusey, both from the red-fruited and the yellow-fruited trees.
  
  
• Two CRAB APPLE TREES at Loeb House bear yellow fruit.
  
  
• The Mass Ave side of Wigglesworth features Sourwood trees with long, narrow, oval crimson leaves and hanging clusters of yellow-green narrow pods.
  
  
• The small maple in front of Widener is aglow in crimson and tourists take turns photographing themselves in front of it.
  
  
• Faculty Club's Rose Garden still shows blooms of red and pink roses, as well as crimson and pink SNAPDRAGONS. A sluggish HONEYBEE gathers its last nectar from a big pink rose. The low bushes in the garden have lost their leaves so the little red berries growing in clusters stand out.
  
  
• Glistening HORSE CHESTNUTS falling near Lehman Hall are all gone, picked up by tourists looking for a botanical souvenir of Harvard Yard.
  
  
• The IVY on the renovating Fogg turns orange on the left and cordovan on the right side of the building.
  
  
• THANKS to Campus Nature Watchers Rose Cortese, Sonia Ketchian, Amanda Moore and Elmer Rodriguez!
  
  

Contact Us

For information concerning Recycling and Solid Waste Removal, contact Rob Gogan, Supervisor of Recycling and Solid Waste Removal at 617-495-3042, or email rob_gogan at harvard dot edu