See why this building won Harvard's first LEED Platinum certification:
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A Harvard department is on the look out for 1000 to 2200 feet of surplus library shelving. Free- standing is optimal but compact in good condition is also welcome. Please contact us if you have any to donate.
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 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.
THANKS FOR REDUCING, REUSING AND RECYCLING!
Tom Kumasaka displays re-use ethic by dusting off his "Reindeer Rat" mug for the UOS Holiday Coffee last month. Mystery: Why are Gosia Sklodovska and Carol Healy from the Office for Sustainability hiding their cups? Why did photographer Rob Gogan compose photo to hide his cup?
HARVARD posts BEST RECYCING, LOWEST TRASH month ever! In December, Harvard recovered 57% of its refuse for recycling. This is the highest monthly recycling rate we've ever recorded. Even more gratifying, our per capita trash fell to 25.99 lbs per person for the month, another record. The new semester break schedule may have delayed trash output until the students return for Spring Term. But for the month, and indeed for this half year to date, Harvard is recycling and reducing at a historic rate. Thanks for your help!
For the ninth consecutive year, HARVARD HAS SIGNED UP FOR RECYCLEMANIA, the 10-week contest in which colleges and universities strive to cut their trash and increase their recycling. A record-setting 586 schools, including all but one of the Ivy League universities, are registered. The competition runs through 27 March, 2010. Results will be announced by Earth Day. Last year Harvard finished 2nd in the Gorilla Prize competition for most tons recycled. We have beaten Yale in per capita recycling every year and, with your help, expect to do so again!
One week before the terrible earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, HARVARD RECYCLING DONATED GOODS BOUND FOR HAITI on a 40' Seaboard shipping container. We worked with Haitian native and Cambridge resident Suzie Ligonde, sister-in-law to Port-au-Prince Archbishop Emeritus Francois Ligonde, who shipped the container to benefit the school and orphanage of Les Oeuvres de la Divine Misericorde. Suzie also bought refurbished computers from the LABBB project, plus four pallets of lidded buckets and other goods from the Habitat for Humanity hardware sale. The goods are still in transit but will add greatly to the comfort and education of the children once the port opens again. Ms. Ligonde was in Cambridge at the time of the earthquake but her husband and the children were all right, except for one girl whose leg was hurt. Thanks to FAS (65 mattresses and 900 pillows), HBS (200 blankets and linens), Harvard Yard Childcare Center (children's furniture), HLS & HBS (move-out cosmetics). Thanks for your continued donations!
TOUR CASELLA RECYCLING'S CHARLESTOWN PLANT Tuesday, 1-26-09. This free tour fills up quickly as we only have 30 seats on the bus, which we distribute on a first-come, first-served basis. The bus will leave Harvard Square at 9 AM sharp and return by 12 noon. If you are interested, please email us right away.
Valentine’s Day Cosmetics Drive.
In conjunction with REP, Harvard Recycling kicks off its annual VALENTINE'S DAY COSMETICS DRIVE to benefit the women of the Cambridge Family Shelter. The 100 residents try out the cosmetics at a party at which a manicurist and cosmetician donate their time. Please send us your unused nail polishes, shampoos and soaps. No used lipsticks or other personal contact items, please. The women have sent us dozens of thank-you notes over the past seven years including one from last year who wrote, "I really needed what I got," and "Thank you! Now I'm beautiful!" Collection boxes (12” x 12” x 30” tall) will be delivered to all Harvard Houses (Building Managers’ offices), Harvard Yard Operations in Weld Hall and other locations where a volunteer coordinator agrees to collect and hold the cosmetics for us until the pickup day on Monday, 2-8-10. Please email us if you’d like to help set up a collection site for your building and we will deliver a tall white box to you suitable for decoration with Cupids and doilies shortly!
Speaking of cosmetics, MassDEP has a new website explaining what is known about the safety of the products. Thanks to Brooke Nashe for the tip!
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
