UVic recycles ... sometimes
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Updated: October 09, 2009 3:34 PM
The University of Victoria is often lauded as one of Canada’s greenest schools, but if you lift the lid on any of the campus’ blue-topped recycling cans you’re as likely to find garbage as you are bottles, cans or paper.
In a school as large as UVic, the amount of garbage contaminating actual recycling is a concern. An alarming volume of material that could be recycled is instead taking up space at the dump.
“We’re taking our recycle (loads) out but they’re contaminated and being rejected, so we have to either re-sort or take it to landfill,” said Tom Smith, UVic’s executive director for facilities management.
Just how big the problem is hard to say. In 2007, UVic sent 8,000 tonnes of material that could have been recycled or composted to the Hartland landfill, an audit found.
In the two years since, enrolment has grown, reaching a record of 19,297 students on campus this fall. A new audit won’t be done before next spring.
“I think collectively we know we’d like to do more to reduce what’s going to landfill. And we’re moving forward on a number of initiatives to do that,” said Bentley Sly, UVic’s manager of grounds and environmental services.
When classes resumed this September, the university’s new waste reduction unit launched a pilot project to try to address the problem.
It introduced sorting stations in five buildings, with separate bins for garbage, mixed paper, refundable containers and mixed glass and plastics.
Sly said the pilot will run until November and will give the university a baseline to measure future improvements.
“We’re very excited. We’ve got a brand new unit -- the university’s taken a major step to put a waste reduction unit on the ground operationally -- and we’re quite excited by some of the opportunities that opens up for us, to be able to do the right things.”
Ultimately, the university hopes to reduce the amount of recyclables going to the landfill by 75 per cent by 2012.
kvass@vicnews.com
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