Last week we asked staff and students to lug their mugs for Waste Reduction Week. We spotted more than 600 people on campus toting a reusable mug and sold another 720 EcoMugs to those who typically savour their Double-double with a disposable cups.

We have a lot of campus sustainability accomplishments to celebrate, but EcoMug use isn’t one of them (she writes with pangs of shame). Our current EcoMugs use on campus is 7%. 7%!! Back in 2009, we hovered around 30%. What’s changed? We ask ourselves. Read More →

From October 21 – 27, Red River College will join hundreds of schools, businesses, non-profit groups, municipalities and Canadian households by participating in Waste Reduction Week.

Throughout the week, the Sustainability Office has planned a bunch of events to engage, inform and promote waste reduction and recycling on campus. Come out to one event or join them all – just don’t waste these great opportunities! Read More →

It takes a whole lot of bags, bins and elbow grease to run Red River College’s recycling program. By the numbers it’s:

• 25,000 bags annually
• 450 bins of various shapes and sizes across our campuses
• 17-member Recycling Team

I like to call it Sustainability at Work – the active, team effort needed to get all of our recycling out of the bins and out the door. Our Recycling Team is divided across 3 campuses, the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute, Roblin Centre and Notre Dame Campus. The team is responsible for the day-to-day operations of collecting and sorting, cleaning and preparing our cardboard, bottles, plastics, paper, cans and food waste for recycling and composting.  Thanks to them, we recycle 963 kg of bottles and cans, 1796 kg of paper, 3070 kg of cardboard and compost 5425 kg of food waste every month. That’s enough to fill 187 residential recycling bins every month!

This isn’t everything we divert from the landfill, but represents a sizable chunk of what we recycle on a daily basis, and provides a good snapshot of the sizable efforts our Recycling Team. So keep the recycling coming, and next time you see a member of the Recycling Team, tell them what a good job they’re doing. 🙂

A peek at the College’s e-waste stockpile. Not to worry, it will all be recycled.

Do you have old, broken or unused electronic equipment or small appliances sitting at home or in your office collecting dust and being as useless as a chocolate teapot? If so, we want it!

E-waste, short for electronic waste, refers to all waste that comes from or is caused by electronics. Items like old computers, phones, and radios and televisions, media waste (CDs and floppy disks) and light bulbs are all e-waste.

Disposal of these items is a growing concern, because of the health and environmental hazards contained within the electronic components themselves.  Materials like lead and mercury can leach out into the ground water, soil and air if not properly disposed. There are also several non-renewable resources – like tin, nickel, zinc, aluminum, copper –  that can be recovered and reused from these items. Read More →

Q) What do these bins have in common?

Bins, bins and more bins.

Read More →

What keeps a Sustainability Officer up at night? The thought of eggshells, food scraps and coffee grounds ending up in the landfill.

As many of you know, RRC is slated to open the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute (PGI) in January, 2013. Located in the historic Exchange District, this architectural marvel will deliver the College’s Culinary Arts, Hospitality and Tourism Management Programs. This means that students and staff working and schooling downtown will soon be able to dine on culinary delights and purchase warm breads and mouth-watering baking — my personal faves are the peanut butter brownies. On top of these programs (literally), floors 4 – 10 will house the College’s first student residence.

While this project is exciting for many reasons, putting a culinary school, three restaurants and a 100-bed student residence is a downtown setting can pose some operational challenges. This brings me to my initial question of why I’m tossing and turning over organics instead of counting sheep. Read More →

One of 16 fancy new fountains on campus.

Last year we asked RRC students about their “top of mind” sustainability issues for the College.  Full results from that study can be found here, but those interested in the Coles Notes version need to know that installing more bottle fill stations ranked in the sustainability top-three.

The Notre Dame Campus now has 16 chilled, filtered bottle fill stations located in every building and on every floor on campus. Bottle fill stations can also be found at the Portage Campus and are planned for the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute (under construction). Sorry Roblin Centre, because the taste and temperature of your fountain water is p.d.g. (pretty darned good), we did a quick retrofit of your fountains with goose necks. Read More →

RRC Polytech’s recycling program accepts these materials, and more!

What do yogurt containers, fresh fruit “clamshells” and frozen food trays have in common? They are now accepted in RRC’s recycling program!

Thanks to our new recycling hauler, Phoenix Recycling Inc., RRC has expanded the types of allowable materials into our recycling program. Read More →