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.

Thanks to Peter Siebert of the Harvard Planning Office for setting up this map. The Surplus Center is just to the west of 141 N Harvard St on the map.

PARTIAL SAMPLING

A PARTIAL SAMPLING of goods available for distribution as of 5-28-11:

• 11 TONS OF STORM SAND in 50-lb bags, ideal for construction or sandboxes.
• FILE CABINETS (8), four lateral and three vertical
• OFFICE SWIVEL CHAIRS
• OFFICE SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT

Deep Green Crimson Commencement

Watered by May’s abundant rain, Harvard’s campus sprang up green in verdure and in sustainability this Commencement. For the second year, the Senior Dinner exceeded a 90% recycling rate, with only 20 fluffy bags of plastic wrap for 7,000 meals, and spared a ton of compostables and recyclables (well, more like 1.2 tons) from the landfill. Thanks to Dave Seley from Harvard University Hospitality and Dining Services and mighty Team Compost, as well as Crimson Catering’s Madeline Meehan and Katie O’Donnell and crew! Thanks also to HUHDS’s Martin Breslin for setting up six local agencies to pick up servable prepared meals when guest counts varied from RSVP’s. The Ed School’s Jason Carlson, Linda Endicott and Mike Goodwin worked with their caterer, Tables of Content, to conduct seven days of zero-waste events. Jyoti Rana of the Divinity School orchestrated five zero waste events, despite having to take two days off to celebrate her daughter’s graduation from Harvard Medical School. Michele Blanc and Ed Garland, working with the 25th reunion, offered recycling and composting at dozens of dinners, luncheons and bar set-ups, using 25 Catering Recycling Kits complete with slops buckets to help keep compost dry. The Harvard Alumni Association’s reusable lunch bags were such hot souvenirs that a scan of Harvard Yard trash barrels turned up only four bags that were discarded in the trash out of 5,000 lunches served on Class Day. In turn, the bags allowed guests to save uneaten food for later, which dramatically reduced the weight of trash bags. Thanks to Courtney Shurtleff, Jon Petitt, Gretchen Picken and others at Alumni Affairs and Development, who provided the HAA bags and who promoted sustainability at every event. Thanks to all Harvard guests and hosts for making this a record year for composting at catered Commencement and Reunion festivities.

 

Least Trash Ever

Harvard discarded its LOWEST TRASH TONNAGE EVER through April for FY11. Thanks, reducers, reusers, composters and recyclers! Let’s keep it up right through Senior Move-out and summer construction set-ups to make this a record year for high donations and recycling and low landfill tonnage!

 

Stuff Sale Donations Flood Warehouse

Students donate nearly 200 TRUCKLOADS OF REUSABLE GOODS during Move-out (so far) for the Harvard Habitat for Humanity Stuff Sale, Cosos of Adams House, the Cambridge Family Shelter and other charities. A huge team of volunteers led by HHH’s Molly O’Donnell ’13, Ke Xu ’11 of Harvard Taiwan Leadership Conference, Sharon Howell of Cosos and others helped sort the bonanza in preparation for the Stuff Sales this summer and delivery to a host of charities. Through Commencement Day, we had already recycled 19,792 pounds of clothes with at least that much more to come. Thanks to HHH; the Dorm Crew; all FAS undergraduate Houses and dorms and their building managers; Law School building managers and custodians, especially Becky Andreasson, Joao Amado and Kate Cosgrove from OFS; the Business School’s Stephen Coughlin and Carol Healy from OFS; Larry Black and Gina Venturini from Harvard Kennedy School, who hosted a Donation Station; Dean Evelynn Hammonds and the Office of Harvard Student Residence Life, Master Sean and Co-Master Judith Palfrey of Adams House, and to President Drew Faust for providing meals and housing to all these student volunteers. Working together, we save Harvard students money for books and furnishings, raise at least $100,000 for HHH and other charities, and divert at least 100 tons from disposal. Thanks to all donors, sorters and hosts, especially Carolee Hill, Joe Jones, Gail Olivier, and Joe Ribas from Harvard Real Estate for donation of the warehouse in Allston!

 

EAC Box Sale cuts trash and raises funds

Harvard’s Environmental Action Committee sold OVER 2,000 RECOVERED CARDBOARD BOXES during Student Move-out Week. Volunteers selected large boxes most suitable for moving from recycling set-outs from University buildings and Harvard Square merchants. Then they flattened them, palletized and wrapped them, and sold the boxes throughout the month of May. Thanks to EACer’s Sam Arnold ’14 (following footsteps of brother Zach Arnold ’10, coordinator this event for the EAC in his day), Gracie Brown ’11, Talia Fox ’11 and others who put their “reduce, REUSE, and recycling” values into practice. No tally yet on whether Sam was able to reach Zach’s incredible tally of $3,756 in 2007 raised for the EAC’s activities, but we know Sam’s sibling rivalry fires were stoked!

 

Recycling and Zero Waste Guide

Download our new HARVARD FMO RECYCLING GUIDEBOOK! Thanks to Mike Conner of UOS for invaluable help with production. Read about our new commitment to Zero Waste, current SingleStream recycling specifications, composting on campus, and a summary of all FMO Recycling & Waste Services here:
http://www.uos.harvard.edu/fmo/recycling/index.shtml

 

Semi-New Computers

GOOD, CHEAP COMPUTERS for sale! They’re selling like hotcakes but we have plenty more. Surplus Harvard PC's and laptops refurbished by Semi-New Computers, with the help of special needs students from the LABBB Collaborative, are available for sale. "As our inventories have expanded we are now able to offer our desktop computers at three different price/capability levels. A Pentium 4 or Pentium 4 HT system with 512 KB RAM, 40 GB HD and 15" flat screen monitor for $100-- A Pentium D system with 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HD and 17" monitor for $150--- A Pentium Core 2 Duo or Pentium V-Pro system with 2 GB RAM, 100 GB HD and a 17" monitor. PLUS! Any system can be upgraded to an 18" or 19" monitor of an additional $50. We also have begun to get a small supply of laptops. For information on those or to get any further information about our services, people should contact either Charlie Thompson 617-721-5549 or Marlene Archer 781-883-3265. On the web at www.semi-newcomputers.com " Mention that you read about this in Harvard Recycling Update and you might get a free, brand new inkjet printer with your purchase (while supplies last)!
Contact Semi-New for details: cmt1216@gmail.com or marcher04@yahoo.com.

 

Waste-busting Web Videos

"HARVARD COMPOSTS," a new video by the Office for Sustainability’s Claire Berezowicz and Kate Cosgrove, describes Harvard's compost process from plate to spoils, to farm, and to soil. Claire and Kate were our guests on the March visit to Brickends Farm in Hamilton to see Peter Britton’s operation, all featured in the video (2:09 minutes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khknyEByBvM

 

Ed School Greens

"Mother Nature's Posse" on Appian Way! See inspiring Earth Day video of passionate Green Team members from Harvard Graduate School of Education here (4:37):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze1EXkfAPpI&NR=1

 

CAMPUS NATURE WATCH

• Harvard University Press red-tailed hawk doesn’t have a broken wing; it’s just protecting the squirrel game it seized from another hawk in the branches above. Photo by Tim Jones





• Rival hawk looks on with envy at squirrel under the wing of the hawk on the ground at HU Press. Photo by Tim Jones






• HSPH’s Susan Moses releases female red-tailed hawk to its home grounds on Oxford Street across from Maxwell Dworkin. Tufts Wildlife cared for the hawk for four weeks and declared it healed. Photo by John Garp





• Seizing each other’s talons, hawks tumble through the air high over Maxwell Dworkin; whether the hawks are fighting or loving is unclear. Photo by John Garp





• EASTERN COYOTES forage near Radcliffe Quad. See Harvard Crimson article here: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/4/26/coyotes-between-late-weve/
  
  
• ALEWIVES swim upstream to spawn and break water as they chase and court each other beside Larz Anderson Bridge.
  
  
• CARP, at least two feet long, hovers with head down, nibbling tidbits near shore beside Weld Boat House. Its tailfin languishes at the surface, sweeping lazily back and forth.
  
  
• Lively male AMERICAN REDSTART stakes out territory in the large seckel pear tree behind Harvard Magazine.
  
  
• HOUSE SPARROWS convene by the score in the new JAPANESE PAGODA TREE by Grays Hall and adorn it with their presence, looking like large pussy willow buds.
  
  
• RED-TAILED HAWK circles over the Old Yard where YardFest had been held, then lands high up in a tree… red-taileds circle very high above the Old Yard and screech to each other.
  
  
• WHITE PINE behind Loeb House hosts territorial red-tailed hawk nest, not active; hawk perches down midway peering at human gawkers…
  
  
• RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET forages in the crab apple on the roof of Pusey.
  
  
• AMERICAN GOLDFINCH sings in a tree in the Sever Quadrangle before flying off toward Robinson.
  
  
• WHITE-THROATED SPARROW kicks and forages on the Loeb lawn next to a JUNCO.
  
  
• INJURED RED-TAILED RETURNS TO CAMPUS: Cambridge Cable TV announced and showed that the injured red-tailed female hawk picked up from Oxford Street, which was thought to be the mother which abandoned three eggs on the nest on Maxwell Dworkin, was judged to be rehabilitated by Tufts Wildlife and was released in Cambridge. Tufts presented the boxed-but-kick-ng raptor to the custody of Susan Moses, a Cambridge resident who works at Harvard School of Public Health. At 12:45 PM Saturday, on the grass in front of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Susan opened the box and the hawk flew out like a champ, quickly landing on the white pine tree (spared during construction with considerable care) of the LISE building across the street, where its 2010 nest was located. The releasers noticed a new metal band on the recovered hawk. (NATURE WATCHERS, IF YOU SEE A BANDED RED-TAILED HAWK, PLEASE LET US KNOW time and location so we can monitor the recovery process). The hawk surely knew it was home. Soon after that our released hawk and two other hawks were soaring overhead, often bumping each other and, finally, locking talons and spinning in an amazing aerobatic spiral. Susan didn’t know whether the talon-locking was between the recoveree and a rival contesting each other for the affections of the male, or the male greeting his long-lost love. See photos of the amazing release here, including a photo in which Tufts’s new band can be seen on the right leg of the recovered hawk.
  
  
• Later the same day of release of the recovered red-tailed, two hawks were seen side-by-side on University Hall. They were seen later on the other side of the new territorial nest at Loeb.
  
  
• Red-tailed hawk lies in some ground cover under a Japanese maple tree at Harvard University Press’s Fernald Street garden. With one wing sticking out at an odd angle, hawk appears injured, but watchers eventually realize hawk is shielding a recently-expired gray squirrel from a compatriot roosting in the trees above. A local blue jay and robin sounded vigorous warning calls, though obviously too late to help the hapless squirrel.
  
  
• Red-tailed hawk lands in a tree in front of the Dana Palmer House stays there for a few minutes, to the delight of viewers.
  
  
• WILD TURKEY trots through the Agassiz neighborhood at the beginning of May.
  
  
• MOCKINGBIRD flies from the Pusey rooftop to Sever Hall; the next day, it walks and forages on the grass roof, perching on the roof railing before flying to the Barker Center; another mocker sings on the roof of Busch Hall.
  
  
• CHIMNEY SWIFTS soar high over the Newell Boathouse.
  
  
• A pair of resident BLUE JAYS bully a ROBIN pulling EARTHWORMS among the lilac bushes outside Harvard University Press on Robinson Street. After the robin gives up and flies off, the jays fly off in another direction.
  
  
• BUMBLE BEE buzzes among the blossoms of the crabapples on Pusey and a cabbage butterfly flits there over the bushes; two more bumblers work in the tiny yellow-green flowers of the two evergreen bushes at either corner of Wadsworth, facing Grays Hall, that will yield the red berries the Mockingbird likes.
  
  
• The red clusters of the BUCKEYE tree opposite Holyoke Center are still in lovely bloom on Commencement Day.
  
  
• REDBUD trees by the Quincy Street gate and by Matthews are in lovely bloom.
  
  
• ELMS (both English and American) drop their samara oats and pennies in swirling blizzards above Class Day tent in Malkin Athletic Center Quad.
  
  
• LILACS at Busch Hall shed their fragrant blossoms, but the rose bushes are budding and promise abundant blooms in June.
  
  
• CHERRY tree is in full deep pink bloom in front of Loeb House.
  
  
• MAGNOLIAS bloom at Grays, Mathews, Boylston and Wadsworth, plus two very tall ones by Thayer facing Memorial Chapel.
  
  
• Carpet of purple VIOLETS bloom on the side of Loeb House and a Junco flies about in front where the tulips, hibiscus, delight passers-by.
  
  
• HARVARD'S SECOND ANNUAL BIOBLITZ occurred Sunday May1st. Organized by Adam Clark ’11 and Sam Perez ’11, we tracked down 15 species of insects and 23 species of birds. Thanks to Adam and Sam, as well as Professor Brian Farrell and Robert Mayer of the Arnold Arboretum, for leading the Blitz! Congratulations to Adam for winning the 2011 Hoopes Prize for his research on Boston Harbor island ants! Read more about the BioBlitz here: http://harvardbioblitz.tumblr.com/
  
  

Thanks to Campus Nature Watchers Gary Alpert, Don Claflin, Mark Felton, John Garp, John Harrison, Carolyn Jones, Tim Jones, Sonia Ketchian, Amy Kipper, Lori Kuzma, Jean Martin, Isaure Mignotte, David Morimoto, Susan Moses, Sandy Selesky, Kevin Sheehan, and Al Takeda!

 

"I believe we're actually in a period where we're waking up from this humongous hangover of emptiness and waste, and we're taking a leap to create a more sustainable system built to serve our innate needs for community and individual identity. I believe it will be referred to as a revolution, so to speak, when society, faced with great challenges, made a seismic shift from getting and spending towards a rediscovery of collective good. I'm on a mission to make sharing cool. I'm on a mission to make sharing hip. Because I really believe it can disrupt outdated modes of business, help us leapfrog over wasteful forms of hyperconsumption, and teach us when enough really is enough."

Rachel Botsman, author of "What's Mine is Yours," as quoted from TED Lecture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpv6aGTcCl8

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