Recyclemania and The Waste Audit

Sunday, October 24, 2010

UVic Sorts it out during Recyclemania
UVic successfully competed for the first time in Recyclemania, an annual eight-week competition between universities and colleges across North America to see who can recycle the most and reduce the most waste. From Feb 6 to Apr  2, over 41 million kilograms of recyclables and organic materials were recovered by 630 colleges and universities.

UVic performed especially well in the organic waste diversion category–in other words, in keeping food waste out of the garbage. UVic had the highest organic waste diversion rate (per capita) among participating Canadian Universities, and was 38th overall. In the overall contest, which did not take into account organic waste diversion, UVic placed 79th out of 288 schools in the Competition division. “As this was UVic’s first year in the competition, we’re looking forward to improving our standings and recruiting even more recyclemaniacs next year” says Nadia Ariff, Waste Reduction Coordinator. For a full list of results, visit http://www.recyclemaniacs.org/results.aspx.

Waste Audio Video

If you’ve ever wondered what goes in our campus garbage cans, check out a video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBhxiXG9Ons> that shows Facilities Management staff and UVic students conducting a waste audit. It may sound like a messy job but determining what goes into the campus waste stream is critical to helping the University achieve its targeted landfill diversion rate of 75%.

Please help us sort it out! For more information about campus waste reduction initiatives, contact wastenot@uvic.ca.