Giving Up Your Garbage Can
Most of us have heard about bottle free campuses, but what about garbage
can free campuses?
Over the past year, Facilities Management has conducted a pilot project that
had five voluntary departments give up their garbage cans. The thought was
that if people no longer had the temptation of the garbage can sitting right
beside their desk, they would be more apt to sort their waste. After taking
the garbage cans out of the offices, Facilities Management placed fourstream blue bins in locations convenient for the departments. By simply
removing the garbage can from offices separation increased by 25% – 55%!
Another part of the pilot project was to perform waste audits on individual
garbage cans; as well as, the four-stream bin in order to see the difference
made by the four-stream bins. Contamination (waste that is not in the
proper bin) in the garbage cans was on average 47%. In comparison, the
four-stream bins contamination was only 14% on average.
Saint Mary’s, as you can imagine, discards a great deal of waste. From the
beginning of January to the end of June 2010, the university has disposed of
116,650 kilograms of general waste. Waste diversion and separation is
mandatory in the Halifax Regional Municipality. By having four-stream bins
around campus, waste separation is easy. The foundation of the HRM solid
waste by-law is the premise of source separation (the individual who creates
the waste, is responsible for the proper separation of the waste). When you
go to throw out your trash, it doesn’t take any extra time to put it in the
right place, especially when you think of the benefits. When you put in the
right place organics, paper, and recyclables are diverted from our landfills,
having a lesser impact for future generations to deal with.
The garbage in an office should only be used for true garbage. While we may
have good intentions to separate the trash, when we have the can, it
becomes a convenient disposal site.
The students have already changed from individual bins in the classroom to
four-stream bins in the hallways. As a result, there has been an increase in
waste diversion. For myself, coming to Saint Mary’s after this change took
place, I didn’t even consider no garbage cans in the classrooms as being an
issue, after learning more about why the bins were removed it makes
complete sense. When leaving class it is not hard to take your trash with
you to put it in the proper bin. If there was only one garbage can at the
front of the classroom, the waste would end up in the can, regardless of the
type of waste and regardless of the recycling bin in the hallway. It is the
same in the offices, when the occupant has a garbage can, regardless of the
recycling bin in the hallways and regardless the type of waste, it ends up in
the trash.
With schools getting positive recognition for banning water bottles, SMU
giving up garbage cans would demonstrate the extent of the university
community’s commitment to sustainability. As a student, I believe it would
be impressive to start a trend of a garbage can free school. A garbage can
free school would be as admirable as a bottle free school. It would be
something unique that Saint Mary’s could say “Hey, we started that.”
I have had the chance to talk with some members of the custodial staff and
they have noticed, since the pilot project, more people have become
increasingly aware of waste separation. They have seen that there has been
an improvement in people separating their waste, but added that it is still a
work in progress. All three of the staff members agreed that the garbage
cans in offices are most often filled with paper, which does not belong in a
garbage can. Custodial does a great job at making sure the waste that is
separated in the four-stream bins makes it to the correct place on campus
so it can be picked up by the city and taken care of in the proper facility. If
they are making the effort to ensure the waste reaches the proper place to
be disposed of, then we should be able to do our part to take the initiative to
put our waste in the right bin to begin with.
A department chair, whose department gave up their garbage can as part of
the pilot project, admitted that there was some resistance from colleagues at
first. The other faculty in the department were worried that it would be an
inconvenience, but it simply turned into something the department just did.
This is the same for any change, it takes some getting used to, but
eventually it becomes completely normal in your daily routine.
With this information, it is our hope that you will try switching to the fourstream bin system in your department or office. By choosing to kick your
can to the curb, you can show your support to sustainability on campus. This
is a small change that can make a big difference!
For more information about the pilot project, waste separation or other
sustainable initiatives please contact sustainability@smu.ca