Recycling

One of our favorite areas…recycling! At Harvard University, the Green Living Program (GLP) has run the following activities, campaigns and projects:

Recycling Basics

Objective

To educate students about the importance of recycling, and to address barriers against and opportunities to increase recycling on campus

Partners

Harvard Recycling

Activities

The general efforts of the GLP reps include the following:

  • promoting recycling
  • publicizing recycling FAQs
  • conducting an inventory of recycling bins in the dormitories
  • addressing barriers to recycling in the dormitories in coordination with building superintendents and staff
  • interacting with the superintendent to make improvements in recycling
  • attending an optional field trip to the local recycling plant where Harvard sends its recyclables

In addition, recycling is part of the Green Cup Competition. A increase in recycling and decrease in waste counts for one third of a dorm's score.

Resources from the Harvard Green Campus Initiative GLP

Other Resources

Checklists

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Recycling Beyond the Bin

Objective

To create awareness about the materials that can be recycled beyond just cans, bottles, and paper—items such as batteries, inkjet cartridges, clothing and more

Partners

Harvard Recycling

Activities

Reps efforts have included the following:

  • publicizing how to recycle materials like batteries, inkjet cartridges or reusable materials collected during the year
  • working with dormitory superintendents
  • promoting local community recycling with special items

For example, reps have worked with staff to place battery collection boxes in new, more visible or easy-to-find locations. They have also educated students about the opportunity to recycle inkjet cartridges at the local branch of the office supply store, Staples, and cell phones at the local branch of The Body Shop, a beauty supplies store.

Lessons Learned

While it is useful to introduce dormitory residents to off-campus recycling options, we have found it most successful to partner with Harvard Recycling for all of our recycling projects.

Resources

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Annual Waste Audit

Objective

To promote awareness about waste reduction and the amount of waste Harvard could be preventing

Partners

Harvard Recycling and Harvard College Office of Student Activities

Activities

Harvard Recycling collects random samples of trash bags during its morning recycling pickup on the Veteran’s Day school holiday. Reps gather with the Recycling Director to conduct the Annual Waste Audit. They dig through the random samples, measuring how much could have been recycled, how much could have been composted and how much could have been reused. Reps then publicize the results to the campus community, creating awareness about how much we could be preventing from going into the trash. The day of, or a few days after, the Waste Audit, GLP runs Mt. Trashmore.

Resources

In the News

Checklist

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Mt. Trashmore and Mt. Recyclemore

Objective

To educate students about the importance of waste reduction and the results of the Waste Audit through a high-visibility, publicity event

Partners

The director of Harvard Recycling helps with organizing and the staff helps with logistics. The Harvard College Office of Student Activities gives GLP permission to use the outdoor space.

Activities

In collaboration with Harvard Recycling, reps build Mt. Trashmore—a mound of trash that symbolizes one day’s amount of trash from the Harvard Yard dormitories, where most of the 600 first-year students live.  Harvard Recycling staff collect all of the trash bags during their regular morning pickup, and they bring it to the front lawn of the Science Center, a very visible location on campus. Reps and Harvard Recycling staff then build Mt. Trashmore, using chicken wire to keep the trash bags together in the shape of a mountain. Based on the results we get from the Waste Audit, we then demarcate on the mound of trash how much of the trash could have been recycled instead of wasted. Throughout the day, reps take shifts standing in front of Mt. Trashmore, handing out fliers (printed on reused paper) that show the results of the Waste Audit and provide tips on how to reduce waste. During year two of GLP, we built a complementary Mt. Recyclemore, symbolizing the amount of recyclables from the Yard per day.

Lessons Learned

We found that Mt. Recyclemore confused students, so we opted to go without it for the third year.

Very visible, high-publicity events capture the attention of students and the media, and this is great! Shoot for huge, public events, when you have the staff time available.

In the News

Checklist

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Composting

Partners

Harvard University Dining Services and Harvard Recycling

Campus Context

Several of the undergraduate dining halls have a Somat composting machine located in the kitchen. Waste that is created during the preparation of meals is composted. A future vision for the GLP is to integrate composting education into our curriculum and to pursue activities that will increase composting inclusion on campus.

Resources

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