SEEDING LABS

SEEDING LABS is looking for laboratory equipment! If you work in a lab that has any to donate, please help Seeding Labs fill several shipments to their partner scientists overseas. Especially needed are microscopes, including confocal, dissecting, fluorescence, inverted binocular, and light microscopes; spectrophotometers / spectrometers; gas chromatographs; HPLC Systems; balances; biological safety cabinets; table-top centrifuges; colorimeters; CO2 incubators; dessicators; DNA microarray scanners; shakers; stirrers; vortexers; vacuum pumps; waterbaths; full unopened cases of consumables and other labware items; and glassware. Seeding Laps invites its friends to visit www.seedinglabs.org for more information on our activities and our impact. Contact David Qualter, Operations Manager by email or by telephone at
(617) 299-0581 to discuss ways to work with them.

SURPLUS FURNITURE

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.

PARTIAL SAMPLING

A PARTIAL SAMPLING of goods available for distribution:

• 4 TONS OF STORM SAND in 50-lb bags, ideal for construction or sandboxes.
• OFFICE SWIVEL CHAIRS
• OFFICE SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT

Holyoke Freecyclers: Visitors from England snap up free Harvard souvenirs. Photo by Leon Welch

Hundreds of Freecyclers Storm
Holyoke Center

This June, Holyoke Center Information Center, the Holyoke Green Team and Harvard FMO Recycling hosted the University's largest FreeCycle swap fest to date. We swapped at least eight cubic yards of office supplies, notecards, books, kitchenware and toys. A busload of British high schoolers was delighted to snap up Harvard souvenir wallets. A summer child care program teacher snagged as many reams of 11 x 17" paper as she could carry. Holyoke denizens swarmed like bees to blossoms when boxloads of lined notebooks showed up. According to a University Hallhauler, "I came with a cartload of junk and left with $300 worth of toner that we can use!" Thanks to volunteers Berley McKennaand Bjorn Storz from Harvard Real Estate; Scott Allegria and Leon Welch from University Health Services; Lauren Raece from the FAS Core Program; and especially Vinay Devadanum and Robin Parker from Harvard Information Center. Next Holyoke Center Freecycle will occur in September at the Harvard Information Center on the ground floor of Holyoke Center, free to all. Start saving your unused scissors, paper, toners and pens; staplers, pots, pans, lab supplies, computer accessories, books, and all other reusables!

 

Trash Shrinks; Per Capita Refuse Plummets

FY11 saw a drop of 6% across Harvard in both trash and recycling tonnage. This leaves the recycling rate unchanged from last year at 55%. However, the great news is that trash did not rise as Harvard's campus population grew due to increased campus population. Thus our per capita trash plunged 16% from 365 lbs/person to 305 lbs/person. While we held the line on recycling, we saw substantial gains in efficient procurement and reuse. Once again, we thank all of Harvard's waste busters, reusers and recyclers. With a little more effort this year, we can cut per capita trash below 300 pounds.

 

Move-out Thrift sets New Record

In 1989, Harvard students moving out dumped 289 tons of couches, clothing, books and a little trash into dumpsters brought in around campus. This year, Harvard students discarded only 30 tons, an all-time low. For these stunning results, we credit the efforts of two disciplined groups: Harvard Habitat for Humanity and their massive sorting effort at their warehouse in Allston (generously donated by Harvard Real Estate's Allston Development Group)--more about them later-- and the FAS Green Program's undergraduate REPs who located and publicized Reuse Shelves in all Houses and dorms throughout the year and saved thousands of goods from the landfill by putting them into the hands of those who could use them. Thanks to (former) REP Coordinator Brandon Geller of the Office for Sustainability and his stalwart captains.

 

New REP Captain Greens Undergraduate Residences

Welcome to Samantha “Sam” Houston ’11, new Resource Efficiency Program Coordinator for the Office for Sustainability! Sam was instrumental in making Adams House one of the greenest at Harvard, and supervised all the other REPs as Co-Captain. Brandon Geller ’08 has now taken the role of Sustainability Manager for the FAS Green Program. We are deeply gratified to see both Sam and Brandon grow from student activists to wise managers in the course of their time beside the Charles.

 

Stuff Sale sets Summer Record

Harvard Habitat for Humanity ran its first Summer School Move-in Stuff Sale In 2005 and sold $900 worth of goods. This year, over the two days of Summer School Move-in, this year's crew raised $9,348! The funds will help HHH in its mission to send Harvard undergrads to Habitat build sites around the US and beyond. Thanks to Summer School Stuff Sale leader Aaron Palmer '12. Not resting on their laurels, HHH Captain Molly O'Donnell '12 marshalled her troops to start the big push for the August Stuff Sales, the largest of their kind in the nation. HHH has cleaned and tested thousands of items including futons, couches, mini-fridges, microwaves, coffee tables, chairs, rugs, mirrors, ironing boards and waste baskets. The Sales will present 240 truckloads of these quality used goods at bargain prices at the Science Center at One Oxford Street, Cambridge from 9 AM - 5 PM on the following dates:
Sat & Sun, August 13 & 14
Sat & Sun. August 20 & 21
Thurs through Tues, August 25 through 30
Sat & Sun, September 2 & 3.

 

Blackstone LEED Existing Buildings Waste Audit

Led by Kevin Bright of Green Building Services, a team of Campus Services employees based at 46 Blackstone Street sorted through a sample of 100 pounds of trash at the end of June to determine what could have been recycled, reused or composted. Most abundant discard: paper towels. Most frustrating: stapler in perfect condition but jammed with a staple. Volunteers plucked out the jam and the stapler was good as new; wiped down with disinfectant, it was rescued from the landfill for continued use by Campus Services! Read more here:
http://www.green.harvard.edu/case-study-leed-eb-waste-stream-audit-46-blackstone

 

CAMPUS NATURE WATCH

• LAMONT LAPIN pauses from its grazing to watch photographer near Roosevelt Wall outside Lamont Library. Photo by Colleen Bryant






• EASTERN COTTONTAIL RABBIT hops boldly around southwest corner of Lamont Library, savvily staying off the asphalt but quite tolerant of human passers-by, nibbling the abundant fare in the Dudley Garden… litter of cottontails is raised next to Harvard Allston Ed Portal close to 175 N. Harvard Street; babies are no larger than an adult mouse when discovered, but nursed nocturnally in secret by their mother, they grow up quickly. HAEP staffers seize the “teachable moment” to post information for their many young visitors and post rabbit life cycle notes nearby… another young rabbit feeds on grass on the roof of Pusey, as an even smaller one at the stairs of Houghton pauses and waits by the bushes.
  
  
• FOX discards gnawed skulls of rabbits and squirrels outside the entrance to its burrow near Kresge.
  
  
• PEREGRINE FALCON perches on the steeple of Memorial Church.
  
  
• HOUSE SPARROWS vigorously sand bathe in the sand heap excavated by the archaeological dig near Grays Hall in the Old Yard… baby sparrow in a Japanese Pagoda tree near Memorial Church begs to be fed by parent.
  
  
• Immature GRACKLE forages timidly in the area between Wadsworth House and Grays Hall.
  
  
• WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH climbs up and down the tree calling and receiving an answer in front of Loeb House, and a nearby CHICKADEE calls as well.
  
  
• For days CHIMNEY SWIFTS fly about the yard and over Widener, calling out their rapid chirps.
  
  
• MOURNING DOVE lands on the grass in front of Widener.
  
  
• Young MOCKINGBIRD climbs up the back side of Loeb House; later, [the same?] one walks up the banister of the ramp up the Carpenter Center.
  
  
• AMERICAN ROBIN lands on the second floor window ledge of the Quincy side of the Sackler Museum with straw in its beak. A day or two later a complete beautiful nest was there. The next day, that part of the window was open, without a nest, only a few stalks of loose straw.
  
  
• Medium-sized yellow-gold butterfly flies about the Old Yard.
  
  
• MOUNTAIN LAUREL on the Quincy side of Robinson buds and blooms beautifully.
  
  
• Four BLACK LOCUST trees grace the area from the front of Widener to the side of Sever, showing white clusters of flowers, and oval leaves along each twig. Abundant bumblebees attend the prolific blossoms.
  
  

Thanks to Campus Nature Watchers Gary Alpert, Meghan Bea, Colleen Bryant, Zak Gingo and Sonia Ketchian!

 

"The longest journey taken needs a first step to begin. This cleanup's gonna take a while, but now we must begin. Clearwater says to lend a hand, a claw, a paw, a fin, 'Cause now we got to work to save tomorrow."

Pete Seeger, "How are we Gonna Save Tomorrow?"

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