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Off campus, but nearby: 6' tall room dividers, two with built-in doors, enough to create 12 offices. Please let us know if you are interested.
WANTED: Partner to share purchase of biodegradable tablecloth cover rolls made by Poly Disposables of Ontario, item R-258. Product has too high a minimum purchase for Harvard customer, but teaming up with another customer might enable a split order. Product is 40” wide by 300 inches, $33.50 per roll. Can we pull together local customers for 200 rolls? Please let us know.
WANTED: Small bike rack. Please let us know if you have any to give.
WANTED: MICROFILM READER for new Harvard Fellow. Please let us know if you have one to spare.
SURPLUS FURNITURE and other items are available at our Recycling and Surplus Center in Allston every Thursday from 11 AM -- 2 PM. 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 FMO Recycling & Waste Services, and we can never receive any trash or hazardous waste. All loose items must be boxed in 24" x 40" bin boxes, staged on pallets. Movers must provide their own boxes, but pallets are available here. .
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. Our preferred vendor is DataShredder at 1-800-622-1808.
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. Everything is free, first-come, first-served and open to everyone.
Here is a map, thanks to Peter Siebert of the Planning Office, showing the location of our Recycling and Surplus Center.
For the next month, we will be purging unsold goods recovered at Move-out. We will have lots of SCHOOL SUPPLIES, BACK PACKS, ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT and other goods. Come on down on an upcoming Thursday!
Cambridge also will collect PUBLIC AREA RECYCLING WITH HUMAN-POWERED VEHICLES from 40 recycling stations in parks and streets across Harvard Square and elsewhere around the City starting November 1st! Harvard has used MetroPed for help collecting recyclables at Move-out time. See information here.
Nantucket recovers 92% for recycling or composting! See how here.
Though the California Senate voted against banning plastic bags, there was a major public effort to raise awareness about the "Pacific Garbage Patch," including this hilarious video about the natural history of a plastic bag in the San Francisco Bay area.
By the way, here in New England, we could substitute "Atlantic" every time the video mentions "Pacific." There is a giant garbage patch off our shore too, loaded with bits of buoyancy-neutral films, foams and rigid plastic. See here.
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"
New England proverb
Thanks for reducing, reusing and recycling!
Harvard’s Green Team, Fenway Park, 9-22-10. Photo by Colin Durrant
HARVARD RECYCLES at FENWAY PARK. Wednesday, 9-22-10 was "Harvard Night" at Fenway Park. President Drew Faust threw out the first pitch, the Kuumba Singers sang the national anthem, the organist played "10,000 Men of Harvard"—and a green-shirted crew of Harvard students and staff put on their gloves and showed Red Sox fans how to recycle their plastic cups and bottles! The Office for Sustainability and the Office of Public Affairs & Communications teamed up to "green the Monster" and watched the Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles by a score of 6-1. Transportation Services’ Carl Tempesta orchestrated the shuttle busses to and from the park. Volunteers included OFS’s Heather Henriksen, Brandon Geller and Colin Durrant; FMO Recycling’s Rob Gogan; Resource Efficiency Program (REP) Captain Gracie Brown ’11, REPs Annie Deangelo ’12, Jennie McKee ’11, Devon Newhouse ’13 and Kristen Wraith ’14; Graduate Jonathan Vogel, Students David Bicknell ’13, Cori Lewis ’11, Mariel Sena ’13, Michelle Sirois ’12, and Tiziana Smith ’11; and last but not least, the newest 
members of the Harvard Green Team, the "Green ‘14’ers" Cody Dean ’14, Arturo Elizondo ’14, Spenser Goodman ’14, David Grieder ’14, Radhika Jain ’14, Charlene Lee ’14, Darren McLeod ’14, Jessica Perillo ’14, Michelle Suh ’14, Jinzhau Wang ’14, Pin-Wen Wang ’14, and Michael Zamora ’14. On the very first game of this season back in April, the Graduate School of Education also sent a Green Team to help with Fenway Park recycling. Thanks for helping green the Crimson Sox!
Continuing our sports recycling theme, it’s time for the "GAMEDAY" FOOTBALL RECYCLING CHALLENGE! The US EPA released details about its 2010 GameDay Challenge, in which campuses record how much recycling and compostables they collect during one football game. Harvard was among 10 schools participating in the pilot test of this competition. The Crimson came in first in per capita recycling (by a slim 1/1000th of a pound per capita) ahead of the UColorado Buffaloes, although we also produced a lot of trash. Combining waste minimization and recycling & compost recovery, we were third overall behind the Buffs and the Ohio University Bobcats. Can we do better? Absolutely! This year, Harvard Athletics has selected the Lehigh game on Saturday 10-16-10 as The GameDay Game. Help us out by recycling all bottles, cans, cups, programs & cardboard. Of course, later in the fall, we will also be hosting "THE GAME" with Yale. We hope to exceed the excellent recycling success of Yale Recycling at the Bowl in New Haven last year. Harvard FMO Recycling was honored to present a webinar about our GameDay experience last year on Thursday, 9-23-10, which the EPA will post soon on its GameDay resource website here:
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/partnerships/wastewise/challenge/gameday/resources.htm
Read the case study the EPA wrote about Harvard Athletics’ GameDay experience last year:
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/partnerships/wastewise/challenge/gameday/09success-hu.htm
Entering freshmen had the opportunity to claim and decorate one of the free REUSABLE MUGS PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE FOR SUSTAINABILITY and the FRESHMAN DEAN’S OFFICE at the first BrainBreak earlier this month. By using their mugs only 24 times, Green ’14-ers will match environmental impacts of manufacturing and disposing paper single-serve cups, according to economist Pablo Päster
(see:
http://www.triplepundit.com/2006/09/ask-pablo-the-coffee-mug-debacle/ ). If students drop their mugs off at the Annenberg dishroom, Harvard University Hospitality and Dining Services will wash their mugs and place them on the Mug Trees and statue shelf for use the next morning. Says Tom O’Brien, Annenberg Manager, "We’re encouraging students to use them in their rooms, in the dining halls, and around campus. We want to see a lot of mugs coming through the kitchen this year." Read more here on the Office for Sustainability website:
http://green.harvard.edu/node/1057
Casella Recycling does a marvelous job sorting out our recyclables efficiently. But they have told us that they need us to bag our recyclables in clear bags only. Please do not use black, brown, blue or green bags to contain recyclables. As always, clear bags full of recyclables are OK but not loose plastic bags. Clear bags with black, blue or green printing like the ClearStream "Recycling Only" bags are OK. Thanks for helping us with this! You may have seen our own Harvard FMO recycling drivers lining the containers for recyclables from the BigBelly solar trash compactors in the Yard (like these) with black bags. This is because BigBelly Solar hasn't yet manufactured clear bag liners for their recycling bins. We are working with them on a pilot project to design some which will become a new product for the company. So far we have tried (and rejected) two iterations. But we'll get there!
This fall, many departments welcomed their students, staff and faculty back to school with Zero Waste events, including the Department of COMPARATIVE LITERATURE, led by Program Assistant Isaure Mignotte; the Harvard FACULTY COUNCIL, led by University Hall Building Manager Maureen McCarthy; Tozzer LIBRARY, led by Library Assistant Director Andy Laplume; the CHEMISTRY Department, led by Kathy Oakley and Helen Schwickrath; the WEATHERHEAD CENTER for International Affairs, led by Clare Putnam; HUHD’s massive catering productions at the STUDENT ACTIVITIES FAIR and the FALL CARNIVAL in Harvard Yard, led by Dave Seley, Jamie Davies and Rudy Gautschi; HGSE’S WELCOME BARBECUE, led by Linda Endicott and Tables of Content; GSAS WELCOME LUNCHEON, led by Crimson Catering; ENGLISH Department Welcome Luncheon, led by Melissa Gerber Lassonde; EARTH & PLANETARY SCIENCE’s Welcome/Welcome Back BBQ, led by Maryorie Grande; End of Summer Potluck for the FAS CENTER FOR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY, led by Adriana Gallegos, ADMISSIONS OFFICE WELCOME BACK, led by Marcia Morgan and many more! Thanks to Jason Luke and Phil Alvarado of FMO Custodial Services; Les Takacs of Biological Laboratories Facilities; Larry Paige of the Head House; Matt Stec of FAS Physical Resources; Michael Colliver and Jen Piazza of Radcliffe Facilities; and last but not least, Brandon Geller, Lauren Raece and Gosia Sklodowska of the Office for Sustainability, which donated compostable cutlery for many of the FAS events!
To emulate these green heroes, see the excellent ZERO WASTE EVENTS GUIDE from the Office for Sustainability, which offers a short video on how to have a waste-free party. Rob Gogan of Harvard FMO Recycling describes how Harvard’s experience with recycling and waste reduction can lead all schools to Zero Waste. See his on-line webinar, along with those from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Cabarrus County, NC, entitled "RECYCLING AND BEYOND: TOWARDS A ZERO WASTE CAMPUS" here: http://www.curc3r.org/webinars.php
HELP FOR HAITI update: Suzie Ligonde, Cambridge resident and patroness of Ecole Polyvalent, an orphanage school in Port au Prince, is assembling another overseas shipping container to help the children. So far, she has set aside Harvard-generated cosmetics, more crutches, and cleaning supplies collected at the Undergraduate Move-out (thanks to Robert Wolfries and the Dorm Crew and the Harvard Habitat for Humanity Stuff Sale Crew led by Captain Timo Kim ’10); exercise mats donated by Harvard Business School which Suzie will use for the children’s naptime (thanks to Rick MacNeill), and stuffed animals and toys from the Move-out and the Radcliffe Yard Day Care Center. Thanks to all donors!
In August, we told you about the one-time drop off of unused prescription drugs. We have since learned about two convenient, year-round options for dropping off unused prescriptions. CAMBRIDGE POLICE DEPARTMENT accepts unwanted Rx drugs at a drop-off box in the front lobby of the new police station at 125 Sixth Street in East Cambridge. The station is open 24 hours/day. If the police station is not convenient and you are a Cambridge resident, you can also stop by the office of the Cambridge Public Health Department at 119 Windsor Street and pick up a mailer envelope. There's no postage and you just put the medicine in the mailer and drop in a mail box. Thanks to Judith Nathans for this information. Keeping our medicine cabinets free of prescription drugs will prevent drug abuse and keeping them out of our sewers will prevent troubling genetic mutations such as "feminization" of male wildlife. Read more below:
http://www.cambridgema.gov/CityOfCambridge_Content/documents/FLYER_DropBox.pdf
Beginning October 25, Cambridge recycling will switch to single stream! The City expects single stream recycling to capture a larger portion of the recyclable materials generated by residents. This means that residents will be able to mix clean papers, bottles, cans and cardboard together in one recycling bin. No more sorting. The new recycling trucks will accept cardboard of all sizes. More materials will be accepted including empty pizza boxes and large plastics such as laundry baskets and toys. The City will deliver large recycling toters on wheels to residences with 1-5 units in October. Toters make recycling easier than ever because they can be rolled to the curb when full and provide more room to recycle more and trash less. For more details on single stream recycling in Cambridge, or to see a 6 minute video of the recycling process, visit the DPW Recycling Program website. See above for info about tours of the Charlestown Recycling Facility where the recyclables will go. See this fabulous PowerPoint presentation the Recycling Divisiion prepared for the Cambridge City Council earlier this year:
http://www.cambridgema.gov/TheWorks/departments/recycle/pdffiles/CouncilSingleStreamRoundtable.pdf
And see the beautiful poster here:
http://www.cambridgema.gov/TheWorks/departments/recycle/pdffiles/SSRPoster.pdf
Cambridge DPW is coordinating tours of the Charlestown recycling facility operated by Casella Recycling, the City’s processor. This facility will process recyclables from the upcoming single-stream collection system. Tours will be held on October 28 and November 18. Tours meet at DPW (147 Hampshire Street) at 8:30 am SHARP. To sign up, email recycle@cambridgema.gov or call 617-349-4866. Casella will be hosting a tour for Harvard affiliates in November. We will let you know the date once we know.
Thanks to Campus Nature Watchers , Sonia Ketchian, Sandy Selesky!
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
