SURPLUS AVAILABLE

Want to swap a SMALL AERON CHAIR for a MEDIUM Aeron office chair? Please let us know.

 

SURPLUS WANTED

ARTISTS EASELS for the Essex Art Center. Dick Purinton, Harvard Class of 1952, supports this 17 year-old program offering courses in painting, ceramics, metalsmithing, drawing and more to children and adults of the Merrimack Valley. If you have one or more wooden easels, please let us know, as they need 15.

SURPLUS DISTRIBUTION

SURPLUS FURNITURE and other items are available at our Recycling and Surplus Center in Allston every Thursday except Thanksgiving Day 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.

A PARTIAL SAMPLING of goods available for distribution includes chairs, desks, tables and office supplies.

Kate Cosgrove (center) receives 2012 Cambridge “GoGreen Award” on behalf of Harvard Law School, which won the “Best Large Organization Recycling and Waste Reduction Program,” from Assistant City Manager Richard Rossi (left) and Mayor Henrietta Davis (right).

Harvard Green Carpet Awards

The Office for Sustainability honored dozens of Harvard's recyclers and other green champions at the third annual Green Carpet Awards. The Harvard Undergraduate Drummers (THUD) put a fabulous recycling twist on their classic "Cups" number by magically turning crimson Solo cups green! Several recyclers, reusers and reducers earned kudos. Rob Gogan received the “Spengler-Vautin Special Achievement” Award. Other materials management awards went to the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology’s “More Sustainable Research” project, accruing 93 points towards LEED Platinum certification (Harvard record for a laboratory); 1414 Mass Ave Recycling Competition, spearheaded by Brandon Geller and Elizabeth Whitley; Harvard Law School, which initiated School-wide composting and reusable dishware in dorm kitchens; Harvard Medical School, which with Alicia Murchie’s leadership expanded its polystyrene foam recycling program; and Syed Shahidullah of the Harvard Faculty Club, which among other initiatives began its own Cambridge sparkling tap water bottling program to supplant purchase of bottles from off-campus.

 

RECYCLING SIGNAGE WORKS!

See these impressive results of a study by Harvard Psychology Post-Doctoral Fellow Julia Puaschunder, Ph.D. Dr. Puaschunder has also researched the effects of signage on turning out task lamps in library reading rooms. Key finding: biggest improvements accompany posting of new signs. See recycling study results here:
http://green.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/recycling_study.pdf
See summary of both studies here at Harvard Office for Sustainability website:
http://green.harvard.edu/signage-works-study-shows-students-respond-energy-conservation-prompts

 

GREEN YOUR OFFICE

 

Harvard Real Estate’s Olivia Percy hosted over 300 of her HRE colleagues at the “Green Your Office” event at Holyoke Center Plaza this month. Above, Rob Gogan prepares to bounce Harvard’s biggest rubber band ball constructed from thousands of discarded mail room elastics. Photos by Olivia Percy

 

HARVARD MAKES THE GREEN HONOR ROLL

The Princeton Review has named Harvard to its 2012 Green Honor Roll. They cited the University's 55% recycling rate and strong commitment to reducing Greenhouse Gas. Thanks for helping us make Honors!
http://www.princetonreview.com/green-honor-roll.aspx

 

HARVARD CHAMPION BOOK RE-USER WINS TRIP TO S.E. ASIA

Better World Books recognized Harvard Habitat for Humanity as recovering more books for reuse than any other campus in the nation. In recognition, they are sending 2011 HHH Stuff Sale Captain Molly O’Donnell to Vietnam and Cambodia on their World Literacy Tour from July 2-14th. Congratulations Molly!

 

STUFF SALE SEASON BEGINS

Harvard Habitat for Humanity’s annual Stuff Sales are running this summer at a new location, at the Littauer Circle west of the Science Center and behind Gannett House of Harvard Law School at 1511 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge. This Sunday’s Summer School Move-in Sale yielded over $6,000, a new record. Funds will support HHH’s mission to fund trips to build housing for the needy. The annual fundraising yard sales will offer used goods including futons, rugs, mini-refrigerators, fans, mirrors, lamps, coffee tables and other donations from all over the University from 9 AM - 5 PM on these dates:
August 11-12
August 18-19 in Littauer Circle
August 25-Sept 3 in Littauer Circle
September 8-9 in Littauer Circle

 

...UNLV BREAKS IT…

Building corrugated constructions much too lovely to call a "Fort," design students of UNLV Architecture Professor Glenn Novak used over 1,000 boxes to build this:
http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2012/apr/25/unlv-architecture-students-break-national-cardboar/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4SJnqB-iOU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
In case you missed these stories, see the BYU Box Castle Record Breaker construction here:
http://news.byu.edu/archive12-feb-castlerecord.aspx
...And, what started the Modern Era of Collegiate Box Construction World Records in September 2011, Harvard’s own Kirkland House box castle (complete with moat and drawbridge) conceived, built and time-lapse videotaped by Laura D'Asaro,'13, resident of Kirkland House:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPLbylUlZOA
The competitors haven’t heard the last of Harvard.

 

SHARP DROP IN VALUE OF RECYCLABLES

As reflected in the chart courtesy of PaperFiber.net, the price paid for paper recovered for recycling dropped significantly this year, reflecting slowdowns in the East Asian and European manufacturing economies. Many other commodities including scrap metals and plastics have followed the same price curve. Harvard’s recycler, Casella Recycling, has likewise cut its price paid for delivered recyclables by about $40 per ton this year. Nevertheless, even when paid nothing for recycling, the University saves the $87 per ton disposal fee for trash. So although recycling budgets aren’t as healthy as last year, we would be much deeper in red ink without recycling.

 

COMMONWEALTH TO BAN DISPOSAL OF FOOD SCRAPS

It will become illegal for Harvard’s kitchens to discard food scraps in 2014, according to rules proposed by Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Harvard already recovers much of its uneaten food; fresh servable leftovers go to six shelters while food scraps from 12 kitchens go to two farms for composting. This summer, Harvard Law School is installing a dock-sited pre-composter that will yield by-product for topsoil amendment. Future destinations for wasted food may include biogas digesters to generate methane and biochar. Please contact us if you have questions about how your facility will meet the new regulations. Read more about the rules here:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-05-04/news/31575347_1_food-waste-landfill-capacity-household-waste

 

YALE'S "RESOURCERER" MOVES ON AFTER 22 YEARS

CJ May founded and operated Yale University's recycling program for 22 years. Harvard students raved about CJ when returning from New Haven when "The Game" was hosted there. He led joyful parades of vuvuzela-honking, tricycle-trucking recyclers through the tailgate areas. Now, CJ is moving on to focus on performing his show, "The Magic of Recycling." See CJ's fantastic magic show here thanks to the New Haven Independent's website:
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/recycling_magic_man/#p_cmt

 

BEFORE & AFTER

Harvard Recycling Driver Ed Bettencourt picks up donations for Harvard Habitat for Humanity and other charities at Winthrop House C Entry, one of 52 Donation Stations at Harvard residences. This year’s recovery exceeded 200 truckloads and overflowed the warehouse.

 

CAMPUS NATURE WATCH

• Red-tailed hawk soars over Harvard Stadium.
  
  
  
  
• Male mallard waddles towards Harvard Kennedy School’s Littauer building on a rainy May morning. Photo by Scott McDonald
  
  
  
  
  
• EASTERN COTTONTAIL RABBIT pauses on the steps of Houghton... another rabbit nibbles BIRDSNEST TREFOIL ground cover in low-maintenance plot between North and South buildings of 46 Blackstone Street.
  
  
• DOWNY WOODPECKER flies from one tree to the other to peck away at a fresh place near Loeb House.
  
  
• In front of the crowd gathered on Holmes Field for the Law School’s Class Day, a sudden burst of noise interrupts Dean Martha Minow. REDTAILED HAWK, pursued by several BLUE JAYS, flies from left to right across the whole length of Langdell Hall in front of the audience. The hawk swoops up to the roofline above the columns and rests there briefly before taking off over the building and away, followed by one brave blue jay…
  
  
• Red-tailed hawk sits on the "fletching" end of the weathervane atop Memorial Church, moving slightly in the east wind. For five minutes, the raptor imperturbably sits while a mid-sized bird (mockingbird?) dives and pecks at it over and over. Hawk is still there at the end of lunch hour, having moved to the other side of the vane to scan the northern half of the Yard…
  
  
• Two red-tailed hawks begin a nest on the south side of the Holyoke Center at Harvard Square, but abandon it. The nest is still visible on the metal grating/platform at the extreme top and right of the building. Abandoned hawk nest from 2010 still sits on the right end of the Maxwell Dworkin’s top floor window grate.
  
  
• WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH (possibly a youngster lacking the sleekness of an adult) sits in the WHITE OAK in the Sever quadrangle.
  
  
• Three fledgling STARLINGS scratch and peck on the grassy Pusey roof and two more feed in the Sever Quadrangle.
  
  
• Family of MOCKINGBIRDS occupies top branches of dead SPRUCE in Divinity-Cyclotron slope; adults peck at larvae in bark under branches and shuttle abundant red berries to growing chicks.
  
  
• WILD TURKEY trots down DeWolfe Street sidewalk, stopping at a shaded bowl open patch it probably uses regularly; it rubs its belly into the dust several times, then trots away to join the weekend joggers and bikers on Memorial Drive… another wild turkey strolls across the quiet driveway between Biology and Semitic Museum early one cloudy morning.
  
  
• Wild turkey saunters across Center for World Religions patio. Photo by Jyoti Rana
  
  
  
  
  
• DOWNY WOODPECKER flies from one tree to the other to peck away at a fresh place…
  
  
• Female downy woodpecker flies to the base of a Black Locust, then makes a "chip" sound before slowly climbing up the trunk and big branches to the stump of a sawn-off branch where she is joined by a slightly smaller fledgling whom she feeds several times. Meanwhile a fluffy House Sparrow traces their climbing steps, picking small insects off the bark. The two downies finally fly off together between Lamont and Houghton.
  
  
• ROBIN builds a nest in the tree inside the Pusey pit. It is only visible from the Map Room. BLUE JAY invades and occupies the nest...
  
  
• Robin builds nest next to fence at 46 Blackstone Bioswale, laying sky-blue eggs...Also at Blackstone, robins nest in tree near South Building.
  
  
  
  
  
• Caped robin sports unusual "stole" of mottled white feathers, looking as if it wears fallen blossoms from mature crabapples at 175 N. Harvard Street...
  
  
• Robin on Mother's Day loads her beak with green larvae and rain-swollen worms driven above ground near University Hall by spring rains.
  
  
• VEERY snacks on insects along the foundation and in the parking lot at 7 Ware Street (Harvard Magazine).
  
  
• CORMORANTS fly in awkward spiral over Larz Anderson Bridge, perhaps weighed down from bellies full of ALEWIVES.
  
  
• BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERONS stand vigil in Charles near Peabody Terrace, biding their time until a plump alewife should swim within the long reach of their beaks.
  
  
• GREAT BLUE HERON flies leisurely over Widener, Houghton and from Lamont heads to Quincy St. and Mass. Ave.
  
  
• An elusive HERMIT THRUSH sojourns in front of Loeb House among blooming white AZALEAS and LILIES-OF-THE-VALLEY (this bird was Henry David Thoreau’s favorite singer)
  http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i7590id.html ... BUMBLE BEE buzzes bass note to accompany the songster.
  
  
• GRACKLE saunters by Robinson on the Quincy side.
  
  
• Vivid red male CARDINAL competes with the flowers in front of Loeb House.
  
  
• PAINTED TURTLE the size of an apple pie stretches its neck to sun itself on the low weathered planks of the Newell Boat House raft, then plops into the water as kayakers approach. Another big turtle slips underwater when the same kayak comes near.
  
  
• One mile downstream from Harvard Sailing Center, four-foot ATLANTIC STURGEON swims slowly just under the surface. Sighting is first in nearly a century on the Charles. Read more on CBS Local website:
  http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/02/20/man-spots-rare-atlantic-sturgeon-fish-in-charles-river/
  
  
• ALEWIFE females break the Charles River water by Newell Boat House, pursued by males eager to spawn, swimming upstream to breed…
  
  
• Flying predator drops dead alewife outside a second floor window on a parapet on the courtyard side of Littauer.
  
  
  
  
• On the wall of the steps between Houghton and Lamont, passer-by rescues a stranded SNAIL and gently puts the mollusk down into the ENGLISH IVY beside the steps.
  
  
• 20' BELOW SEA LEVEL: Sturgeons, striped bass and other large anadromous fish swim under the Larz Anderson Bridge, migrating up the Charles to spawn.
  
  
• 10' below: Double-crowned cormorants dive in pursuit of schools (Faculties?) of ALEWIVES among the spawning migrants.
  
  
• At sea level: Families of geese and ducks paddle along the river in search of easy landings near abundant grazing near Weld boat house
  
  
• 2' above sea level, BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERONS stand still awaiting female alewives being chased within beak range opposite Weld boathouse.
  
  
• 10' above sea level, large black DRAGONFLY cruises below LONDON PLANE TREE lower branches.
  
  
• 20' above sea level, STARLINGS wheeze at each other testily among LOCUST tree near Kennedy School's Littauer Hall.
  
  
• 30' above sea level, BLUE JAY hop-flies from stem to stem of AMERICAN ELM next to Eliot House, carefully inspected bark folds for hidden morsels.
  
  
• 40' above sea level, BALTIMORE ORIOLE in the same tree shows off its brilliant orange breast in the sunlight and offers its dulcet melodies during the quiet spells between stoplight cycles at the JFK St-Memorial Drive intersection.
  
  
• 80' above sea level, RED-TAILED HAWK trio soars in circles over Eliot, Winthrop and Kirkland Houses, occasionally calling to each other with piercing gull-like shrieks.
  
  
• 500' above sea level, airplane tows banner above 25th reunion at Dillon Field with cryptic message obviously meaningful to '87 classmates, "OL' GREG LEE IS THE JEN MO MASTER."
  
  
• RED ADMIRAL butterflies by the thousands migrate over Harvard's campus during Undergraduate Move-out. Over 100 per hour stream northward over Science Center, stopping at flowering shrubs for quick sips of nectar before flitting towards Canada. Read about how the freak migration hit the news in Ottawa:
  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/04/19/ottawa-big-butterfly-spring-migration.htm
  
  
• Red Admiral flits among the plants in front of Loeb House.
  
  
• HONEYBEES stream in and out of three beehives atop ridge at 38 Oxford Street, trying to keep up with campus flowers' fountains of nectar.
  
  
• GARLIC MUSTARD invades 38 Oxford Street's woodlands, poisoning soil for all but its kind.
  
  
• WINTERBERRY trees fall to renovation contractors’ chainsaws beside Larz Anderson Bridge. At the same time, project fences off and protects several mature elms and plane trees.e.
  
  

Thanks to Campus Nature Watchers Colleen Bryant, Philip Downey, Sonia Ketchian, Mike Lichten, Jean Martin, Rosemary McConkey, Scott McDonald, Sandy Selesky, Kevin Sheehan, Melissa Smith and Les Takacs!

 

"Don't throw away that shad net; don't junk that hook and line. We can build a better world; we can start in time. Clearwater, Clearwater, this land is yours and mine. And somehow we're gonna 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