Completing a Zero Waste challenge

It was a dark and bustling night in the McMaster University Student Centre when I first saw it happen. I was nonchalantly eating dinner, seated directly across what can only be called a three-panel garbage can, when I witnessed a most disturbing sight.

If you’re familiar with MUSC, you’ll know that the seating area has two charming garbage can centerpieces with four recycling bins, and one organic waste container, flanking its sides a mere three meter walk away from the trash bins. It’s a relatively easy to maneuver set-up with precautions in place to ensure accessibility for students of all abilities.

Sitting across from the generously sized waste bins, I watched as person after person walked to the garbage can and dumped paper, plastic and organic waste into trash bags. Eventually the amount of boxes and bottles overtook the garbage cans and I watched in amazement as one girl attempted to balance a milk carton on top of a leaning tower of Teriyaki containers and pizza boxes.

While the less than a minute walk may seem doable in theory, many students appeared to be unwilling to trek over and put their food scraps in the green bin, and their paper containers and plastic bottles into the recycling bins. Instead, a countless number of recyclable containers were dumped into waste bins that feed directly to landfills.

It was just, so, sad. Recycling bins are not a foreign concept in most Canadian cities and campuses, yet when it came to separating and disposing of various types of waste, no one seemed willing to bother with the extra effort.

With some patience, thought and care, sorting your waste can and should be easy. In response to this neglect of recycling bins on campus, for the past two weeks I have been completing a “Zero Waste” challenge. The term, coined by the Recycling Council of British Columbia, involves solely producing waste that can be recycled, composted or reused. The RCBC originally developed the idea as a campaign to promote the use of organic bins, but many environmentalists and activists have taken it one step further, making it a long-term commitment to produce no “garbage” whatsoever.

A 2010 Canadian Waste Management survey tracked the amount of garbage produced by each province, with Ontario weighing in with 9.2 million tonnes of trash in one year, the highest of any province (Nova Scotia produced the smallest amount of waste, with 367 thousand tonnes per year). With this in mind, along with the torturous image from that dark Student Centre evening, completing a Zero Waste challenge seems like a good idea that can make a small but influential decision in your community.

[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]

Completing my own challenge seemed daunting at first, but so far the task has proved to be surprisingly manageable.

Before completing the challenge, you’ll need to go over your daily routine and identify any products or resources you may be using, and decipher where each item can be disposed of if need be. Coffee cups are a major garbage collector, as any wax-lined cup cannot be recycled. But Union Market, Tim Hortons and Starbucks all provide an option for reusable mugs. Committing to a Zero Waste challenge may involve a small investment in reusable products, but the small dollar charge will result in a large decrease in the amount of trash you’re producing (also most stores offer a discount when you bring your own cup).

McMaster does make composting and recycling accessible, with blue bins located in every building, and green bins in MUSC, Bridges, Mary Keyes, and the kitchens of campus eateries La Piazza, TwelvEighty and The Phoenix. It would be ideal to have more bins, especially as side-by-side receptacles for garbage, but at the moment, the various sorting options are divided.

It takes some effort to seek out these bins and ensure that your waste is being sorted and disposed of correctly, but the effort will decrease your ecological footprint and prevent the mass piling of unnecessary garbage. Mac uses a different waste system than Hamilton, where some products (like pizza boxes, wooden skewers, etc.) are considered compost instead of recycling. You can consult Mac’s specific guidelines on the “Sustainability” branch of their webpage, but common sense can answer most of your questions on sorting.

My personal waste challenge has been effective so far, and aside from a few minor items (a single coffee cup, dental floss, Doritos bags…) my waste has yet to fill a shopping bag, and my friends and roommates are joining in on the challenge.

Completing a Zero Waste challenge as one person may feel like a minor even dismissible effort, but as the trend catches on, more people may follow your example, and a new demand for recycling and composting infrastructure can improve the accessibility and availability of recycling bins on campus and within the community.

Milk carton balancing acts shouldn’t be a daily trend, and campus recycling and compost bins are available for a reason. Completing a Zero Waste challenge can be a fun and useful way to test how much waste you dump into landfills every year, and may make a difference in the long run.