What happens to all that recycling anyway? Ever wonder how the items you recycle are made back into new products? A nifty new video made by Metro Regional Government offers answers. Click here to watch.
Posted by Dawn at 3:06 PM
June 12, 2009Back to Basics: Remembering the Three R’s
During these difficult economic times, many Americans have been forced to go “back to the basics.” Cook at home instead of go out to eat. Forego those extra pair of jeans. Take a vacation in-state instead of around the world. While simplicity has become a useful way to save money, it is also a valuable environmental principle. With so many different scientific studies producing competing claims (CS Monitor “How green are trains, public transportation, and hybrid cars? It depends.”), so many supposedly eco-friendly products on the market (Slate Magazine “How Biodegradable are Biodegradable Plastics?”), and with many new technologies still too expensive or impractical (New York Times “Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting”), it is time to go back to the environmental lesson we all learned in elementary school: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
Although not as flashy or innovative as today’s green buzzwords, reducing your consumption, reusing your products, and recycling your waste is as cheap, simple, and effective as any effort to reduce your carbon footprint. Although our program focuses on recycling, the first two R’s are actually the most beneficial to the environment. Simply buying less stuff eliminates the need to reuse or recycle products. Despite American’s reputation as conspicuous consumers, the financial stress that many households are experiencing has meant that consumer spending has dropped off in recent months. Whatever the motivation, purchasing fewer goods translates into energy savings in production and transportation and less waste in landfills. Reducing consumption involves asking questions such as “How necessary is this product for me?” or “Will I need to replace this product in the near future?” or “Can I purchase a product in bulk or with less packaging?” Out of the three R’s, reduction is the most effective way to be environmentally friendly.
Reusing products is the other often forgotten step in the three R process. Complimentary to reduction, reuse keeps waste out of landfills and helps to eliminate the need to buy or use certain items. Common examples of reuse are the reusable grocery bags seen in checkout aisles across the country. The reuse of products can be accomplished through donating gently used items to local charities or resellers or using old products yourself for new purposes. Reusing takes some creativity and time, but you don’t have to spend any money or worry about possibly complex recycling regulations. The reuse concept can also be applied to one-time use items, also known as throw-away items. Instead of wrapping your sandwich in aluminum foil, put it in reusable Tupperware. Instead of buying bottled water all the time, buy a water filter or pitcher and a reusable water bottle. However you decide to reuse, remember that it is preferred to recycling.
While eco-trends may come and go and scientists debate the latest advancement or contradictory data, the three R’s remain a simple, cheap, and effective way to reduce waste and be environmentally friendly.
Posted by Marcelo at 10:23 AM
May 12, 2009It has been a Jumbo Move-Out
With the exam period over, the only thing that Tufts students have on their mind is beginning their summer adventures. But like clock work, before summer seems close to tangible, we confront the dreaded packing process. We have all said this when that moment has arrived: What to do with all this stuff? Should I sell or throw it away? I just don’t want to be bothered by this? Let’s face it—we would love if someone would just take over from there. So…Who you gonna call? Tufts Recycles!; their operation code name: Jumbo Drop.
For over 5 years, Jumbo Drop has been the awesome solution for converting end-of-the-year waste to recycled blessings. This operation, carried out by fellow Tufts students, seeks to work in conjunction with a variety of Boston charities that could benefit from the college disposal scene. At the moment, Jumbo Drop is working with three charities—The International Institute of Boston (IIB), The Boston Project and Project Home Again. Of the three, IBB has worked closely with the Jumbo Drop team members in collecting dorm left-overs. The International Institute of Boston’s involvement with the project began with Tufts student Kate Berson’s Senior community service project through the charity. The purpose of IIB is to offer legal and social services for refugees and immigrants in the Boston Area, with a concentrated focus on resettlement in the United States for refugees. Kate Berson helps facilitate IBB’s goals by personally collaborating with Jumbo Drop along with her group of IIB volunteers, gathering kitchen supplies, bedroom items, furniture, and toiletries. “Jumbo Drop’s contribution will greatly assist our effort to procure donation s of household items and as a result, will play a significant role in these refugees’ reaching self-sufficiency” explained Berson when answering why she chose to work with Tufts Recycles!. Along with socio-political charities, Jumbo Drop works with faith-based organizations. The Boston Project and Project Home Again are community- and faith- based organizations whose mission is to bring renewal in urban neighborhoods. They are working Jumbo Drop to collect furniture and household items to provide those in need with the basic comforts of home they could otherwise not afford.
From clothing to furniture, from knick-knacks to hackey sacks, Jumbo Drop has procured anything and everything that one could possibly need, dare I say even want. This program brings to light the massiveness of college consumerism as well as the dire need to integrate recycling into our everyday lives. Although several charities benefit from these bountiful Tufts donations, it seems as though there is a continuous increase in the amount of items that students choose to throw away as the years go by. We should be inspired by the initiatives of Jumbo Drop and make everyday a Jumbo Drop Day through simple reuse and reduction to better our local environment.
Posted by Arianna at 4:14 PM
April 21, 2009Final Results From RecycleMania 2009
At last long last the final results for RecycleMania 2009 are in. How did we fair? Tufts ranked 38th in the Grand Champion division, 18th in the Per Capita Classic, and 26th in the Gorilla Prize category. Out of Massachusetts states we finished 4th out of 12, eeking out a final week standings jump over Berkshire Community College and quelling a late surge by Suffolk University. Both finished within 0.15% of Tufts’ recycling rate. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering with their mysterious trash eating beast vaulted into first place in the state, followed by Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and Boston College respectively. Tufts also finished second in the state to Franklin W. Olin in the Per Capita Classic.
So what does this jumble of numbers tell us? In general, that we have one of the better recycling programs in the country. Over 350 schools participated this year and for us to rank in the top 40 in all of the categories says a lot about the commitment of both the student body and our recycling program towards reducing waste on campus.
For a variety of reasons, none of the measures truly says by itself how well a program is doing. Larger universities, for example, may have a low recycling rate but when you look at their total accumulated recyclables they place very high. Small universities with a low residential rate can more easily control their how much waste comes out of their school. Also, schools measure waste differently and at different intervals. This combination of factors makes the rankings in each category a bit murky.
Because of this uncertainty, perhaps Tufts’ biggest achievement of this year’s competition the comparison between our Grand Champion results this year with last year. We improved upon last year’s recycling rate by nearly 5% jumping from just under 34% to over 38.15%. Last year we didn’t have a single week where we recycled 40% of our materials and this year we had two weeks over 45%. Last year we didn’t have a single week where we averaged 4 pounds of recyclables per capita and this year we had 5 such weeks.
Overall, well done, and congratulations to all the schools that participated! A vast number of schools have improved their recycling rate in part through participation in this contest. With more schools competing every year the competition just gets steeper. Let’s keep the habits we formed this year on into the future and regular lives.
Thanks folks! Be well, and recycle strong!
The Tufts Recycles Team
Posted by Dan at 4:49 PM
March 31, 2009Plastic Bags
According to EPA, the global annual consumption of plastic bags is 500 billion to 1 trillion. What's even worse is that less than 1% of these bags are recycled! Click on the link below to see the effects of plastic bags consumption and the failure to recycle these bags.
PoconoRecord
Posted by Hai at 4:46 PM
March 27, 2009Recycling: To Bail or Not to Bail???
When we tuned in last semester to the state of recycling both nationally and internationally was in peril. The fallout for large recycling firms from the global economic crisis was a major slowdown as need across the board for project materials dwindled. With a lack of demand for resources and recyclables being an early cut back for many industries, transfer stations burst at the seams with collected materials that had no logical outpost.
Flash forward six months… Many of the problems that ailed the recycling industry still persist now but the call around the country tells us “Help is on the way!” No. Wait. That was the 2004 Kerry campaign… But, like many industries around the country the recycling industry has been jockeying for aid via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, i.e. the Bailout/Stimulus/Giveusmoneykthnxbye Bill.
And it came! In part… A recent report from Resource Recycling entitled ”Repairing Recycling:Seven ways the stimuluspackage affects you” breaks down how the stimulus package will impact the recycling industry. Compared with the astronomical $789 billion package, a relatively modest amount of funds will be divvied out to recycling and waste management projects around the country. However, significantly more impactful will be larger amount of monies invested towards rebuilding infrastructure. $48 billion, for example, is allotted towards transportation projects with metals heavy bridges and rail projects high on the list. In addition, tax rebates to firms that have purchased recycling equipment over the previous five years and funding towards LEED certified projects and could also help create a market for many recycled materials (if the monies actually go towards funding new projects and not bolster existing ones).
In all of this, the recycled paper industry seems to have been left in the dust. There may be some tax breaks available to compensate for capital purchases but the direct path to aid and new markets that will be available to the metals and plastics industries is just not there. So if you’re looking for a copy of Cosmo from July, 2008 and your doctor’s office just isn’t quite up to speed yet, check out the stacks at your local transfer station. They’re probably still there.
Signing off.
Posted by Dan at 12:55 PM
Vote Earth!
Join the global effort by turning off all lights this Saturday for one hour from 8:30-9:30pm. Remember the blackout earlier this school year? Lets bring it back once again for ONE hour! You know you want to!
Posted by Hai at 12:36 PM
March 11, 2009(Demoralizing) RM Tales From Week 6
More of the same here. This week we moved one place down in the rankings in both the Grand Champion and Per Capita Challenge to 37th and 19th respectively. We still sit in 5th place in Massachusetts.
Now, of these Massachusetts Schools, The Massachusetts Maritime Academy has finally knocked off its Cheshire Cat routine – here one week, out of the rankings entirely the next - and is a mainstay in first place. It doesn’t look like that is going to change. From the looks of their website, these are a dedicated breed of seafaring people who once set in their ways will be hard pressed to dethrone from their pedestal.
And, God bless ‘em, their ways seem Hell bent on recycling. Kudos MMA. We salute you.
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, with all of their ingenuity, seems to have invented some sort of demented trash eating super beast that turns non-recyclable plastics and roofing shingles into corrugated cardboard. Their emergence into 2nd place came out of nowhere based on their early returns in the contest. Soon, the beast may die and they may come back down to earth. Who knows. But for now their 12% lead on us is daunting to say the least.
HOWEVER, the other of the schools in front of us; Boston College and Berkshire Community College – we could easily take them down. And that’s where our sights must be set right now. BC sits a paltry 2% above us and BCC a mere 0.05%.
0.05%???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mean, seriously… you there, reading this right now. Throw your notebook that contains all of your notes from the semester into the recycling bin. DO IT NOW!!! NOW!!!!!!!
Ok, great. Now we’re in 4th. See how easy that was?
Anyway, be well and recycle strong. Until next week… well, keep recycling strong then also. But I will now leave you until next week. Aaaaanyway. Later gators.
Posted by Dan at 4:42 PM
March 4, 2009From Earth911- The Pizza Box Mystery
Published on March 2nd, 2009
The Pizza Box Mystery
by Lori Brown
Many people assume that pizza boxes are recyclable. In fact, most boxes have recycling symbols on them and are traditionally made from corrugated cardboard. They are, in and of themselves, recyclable.
However,...click to read more.
Posted by Dawn at 2:40 PM
Freshmen Dorms Take Mania into Own Hands
The heat of RecycleMania is rising with the independent, intra-dorm recycling competition between Haskell and Tilton. Brainchild of the Tilton-Haskell Advisory Board, a group of freshmen planning and executing various community-service and community-building projects, the competition put more than just bragging rights and recycling glory on the line: the victorious floor wins the prize of dinner with the Bacows which will take place in April.
The Board members measured and tracked progress by counting bags of recycling each weekend for two weeks. The mechanism left some room for subjectivity… and foul play. One Haskell suite reports a recycling bin casualty early in the game, undoubtedly a POW used for amassing more recycling volume. Breaking news: the Haskell 140s just crowned champions. Cheers, Haskell and Tilton, we tip our recycling hats to you; and congrats, 140s, tell the Bacows we say Happy Recycling!
Posted by Maegan at 1:11 PM
February 27, 2009RecycleMania Midterm Report
It has been a wild first few weeks of RecycleMania with a record 293 schools competing for recycling glory. Between schools new to the contest figuring out how to properly record their data and week by week rankings (instead of cumulative) confusion reigned over the first few weeks of the competition. Multiple schools were reporting recycling rates over 70% which is an unheard of rate for secondary institutions.
As we head into week 6, the dust has settled and Tufts finds itself squarely at #36 in the rankings. On the one hand, this is a departure in ranking from previous years. Where we consistently finished in the top twenty-five schools. And there is room for improvement! There are a number of schools packed within the same tight range near 40% and Tufts is definitely within striking distance of a number of them (particularly that ROGUE Boston College). make
On the other hand, Tufts has improved upon its own recycling rate this year by nearly 5% so far from last year. A number of schools have upped the ante this year and more overall recycling across the board is a good thing.
Lastly, with all the hub-bub about recycling, remember your other R's as well: reducing and reusing*. Because, while it is nice to score well in the competition the ultimate goal of an exercise like this is to reduce the amount of waste coming from each school. Little steps such as:
- bringing a coffee mug with you instead of using paper cups
- choosing a product with less packaging
- or not buying items you will never use to begin with
- bringing your own bags to the store and reusing plastic bags you do acquire as trash bags
- taking the time to make sure you are PURCHASING recycled products whenever possible
- compost food scraps in your home and elsewhere
These all make a huge difference in waste reduction, particularly if everybody does these things.
Well, that's enough of me on my lil' soap box here. I'll be back to writing funny stuff next week. Take care and recycle strong!
*So... this is gonna date me a little bit, but rumor has it that since my time in elementary school a 4th "R" has weaseled its way into the "R's" lingo. "Rethinking". Sure, ok. Seems like a good one as it implies that institutional choices can make a huge difference in waste reduction. If you are working for a company that makes electronics, how can you reduce the packaging that said electronics come in? How can we make recycling options for this packaging and product more widely available? And can you make them a little bit easier to open? Just a bit??? I mean, I shouldn't have to struggle for fifteen minutes just to have access to a thumb drive I've already bought!!!
Anyway, there was a time back in the "'80s" - a dark, mythical age where feathered and spiked hair, a Sith Lord named Ronald Reagan, and absolutely horrible music reigned - where the waste reduction steps I mentioned above were hardly on anybody's mind. Yet now look around. They seem commonplace. Second nature to many but at some point you had to learn those behaviors. Now people are talking about a "zero waste" movement where everything we make and use has a potential reuse. Fascinating stuff. Could it happen?
...
Posted by Dan at 12:27 PM
February 13, 2009Planning a Sustainable Valentine’s Day, or Any Other Day
Did you know that the flowers you buy usually come from outside this country? They were grown in places that have less strict pesticide rulings and allow products that the U.S. has banned, like DDT. So if you’re one of the lucky few Tufts girls who will be getting flowers this Valentine’s, insist they be sustainable flowers. Guys, you can (and should) find these environmentally friendly gifts at Whole Foods or a local farmer’s market.
Not a flower person? Everyone likes to go out to dinner, but most people don’t think about making sustainable choices when they do. This link connects you to search engines for restaurants serving your particular eco-needs. Whether you care about vegetarian options or organic and local food, this site has it all and is a useful tool for every night out, not just Valentine’s Day.
Is there anything that makes that significant other melt better than chocolate?
And what better way into your eco-conscious special someone’s good graces than buying chocolate with a heart? These sustainable choices include Fair Trade and organic chocolatiers.
Posted by Julie at 10:11 AM
February 11, 2009How green can the Dental School be? A newly formed group hopes to find out.
In light of the recent economic downturn, it’s hard to imagine the green initiative gaining much ground. In a culture that sees initial payments rather than economic benefits down the line, people are less likely to shell out larger amounts of money to build and buy green even if these eco-friendly materials can pay for themselves in less than a year. With Tufts hit hard by the Madoff Ponzi scheme, the university has a good excuse to not spend much cash, even for something as important as building green.
But Tufts is not using its financial problems as an excuse for ignoring the environment. The green initiative is alive and well on this campus in Medford and others run by this university that continues to be recognized for its eco-conscience. We were rated one of the top 25 greenest schools by the 2009 Kaplan College Guide and given many other environmental distinctions and are living up to that reputation as well as extending our tradition of eco-excellence to our graduate schools.
The Tufts University School of Dental Medicine is a recent addition to our green crusade. Its new green initiative web page has all the information an environmentally minded student or prospective student would need to know. From basic recycling tips to ways to get involved, this short page is comprehensive and helpful from start to finish. One interesting link is to the school’s plan to make their vertical expansion LEED certified. The school plans to add five floors to a building in the greenest possible way. Whether it’s the high-tech toilets and heat sensors or simply using recycled building materials, this sector of Tuft’s graduate schools seems well on its way to becoming greener and more responsible for its environmental impacts.
Along with building an environmentally friendly addition, the dental school is trying to make its daily practices less environmentally harmful. In a recent green initiative meeting, concerns about electricity waste voiced by Steve Witkus, the Clinic Business Manager, were discussed. Currently, a large amount of clinic equipment is left on over night, a practice that is hugely wasteful in terms of electricity and damaging to the actual equipment itself. Witkus has touched on an important point for environmentalists everywhere, what’s bad for the environment usually has some other negative impacts that even an eco-unaware person might care about. Whether it’s the degradation of an x-ray unit or the extra money spent on electricity, being conscious of energy use is helpful in the long run. The initiative hopes to combat this energy-wasteful practice by encouraging people to take responsibility for turning the machines off themselves, adding this step as protocol in a manual, and developing signs to remind people to turn off the equipment.
Another issue brought up at this meeting is the way the student dentists' infection control packages are assembled. Many students feel that each package contains excessive amounts of materials that often get thrown away after each patient appointment. The school hopes to change this practice by discussing reasonable quantities of supplies to be placed in each package. They hope to get data from the student dentists through surveys taken in Group Practice meetings that will help them determine the need per appointment.
On the whole, through viewing the minutes from the green initiative meeting and the new green page on the website, it is apparent that the Tufts Dental School is taking commendable leaps toward an environmentally friendly learning and practicing environment. It is clear that they are open to suggestions, appealing to contributions both on the website itself and through the green initiative meeting’s minutes, which were distributed via email. This transparency is important in making a campus or any environment more eco-conscious. Everyone can have a green idea and shouldn’t have to search for ways to give his or her feedback or get more involved. Eco-awareness will hopefully begin to creep up a prospective student’s list of criteria and, as it does, the Tufts dental school will give others a run for their money.
Posted by Julie at 2:37 PM
February 10, 2009WANTED
I feel like I stepped into one of the Men In Black movies; Omran Alghazouli, wanted for the sale of R-12 Freon, an ozone depleting substance, Raul Chavez-Beltran, wanted for improper disposal of mercury contaminated soil. Forget alien invaders sucking up our ozone, we don’t need any help destroying our world. Raul and Omran are just two of the men who are part of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fugitive list, a list of people who have been charged with crimes against the environment. What exactly is a crime against the environment? You know what a crime against humanity is: an offense against human dignity. So I would define a crime against the environment as a crime against the dignity of the environment, whether that crime is illegal hazardous waste disposal, trading in banned substances, or lying to a governing agency to save money or time. So why is it important to apprehend these environmental criminals? After all, there are only 22 of them on the EPA’s list, as opposed to the hundreds of other people on various other wanted lists.
Besides the fact that I’ve been called a “tree hugging hippie” and therefore am slightly biased towards preserving the environment, we are living in a time where most of society is industrialized and mechanized. We use chemicals to produce every facet of our lives, from food to cleaning products to machine lubricants. Many of these have been discovered to be toxic, either to humans or to the environment (heard of DDT? Thalidomide?), and many may have yet to be discovered to be toxic. Therefore, it is important for the Environmental Protection Agency to address the environmental issues that have risen from our way of life. The EPA fugitives pose as much of a risk towards human life if not more than other criminals, given the potential of the environment to impact large groups of people.
Posted by Erin at 11:22 AM
February 6, 2009RecycleMania Week 1 Rankings...
Check out the progress
Posted by Dan at 1:25 PM
January 30, 2009RecycleMania has begun!
As many of you already know, Tufts is once again competing in the national RecycleMania competition to determine which school creates the least amount of waste. This is determined by various measures including waste per/capita and the percentage of our total waste that is recycled rather than thrown away.
Keep up to date with the event and our current progress at:
- Our own RecycleMania homepage
www.tuftsrecycles.org/recyclemania
- The official RecycleMania site
www.recylemania.com
- Tufts RecycleMania announcements, news, and updates
www.tufts.edu/tuftsrecycles/recyclemaniaannouncements.html
Want to pitch in? Keep yourself and others informed about everything that can be recycled on campus (check out the "How to Recycle" link for useful tips). I'd be willing to bet there are a few things there you wouldn't have thought of. There certainly were a few I didn't know... like, for example that the bindings on notebooks do not have to be removed before recycling the notebooks. Who knew? Removing them was always such a pain.
Check out the scoreboards in your dorms, in dining halls, and (soon) online that mark our progress in the event and spread the word about the competition.
Lastly, students can help us keep vigil through your daily routine. If you notice cracks in our recycling infrastructure such as missing bins, places that should have (more) bins and do not, or recycling bins being disposed of as trash please call Dawn at TuftsRecycles. For many, the choice to recycle is determined by availability of infrastructure so efforts to make that infrastructure more seamless will go a long way.
RecycleMania is, at its core, a way to get you to examine your waste choices as you make them so let's reduce, reuse, recycle!
Posted by Dan at 1:39 PM
January 8, 2009Have you ever heard of Dumpster Diving?
Two friends decide to not buy any things for 3 months. They dumpster dive all of their clothes, food, electronics, art materials, etc.
Posted by Hai at 4:16 PM
Recycle Runway
Nancy Judd, founder of Recycle Runway, turns recyclables such as crushed glass, soda cans, and campaign signs into outfits with elements of fashion, art, and politics. Her latest project includes a 1950s-style cocktail dress made from Obama yard signs, a man's winter coat covered with paper campaign door hangers, a woman's swing coat stitched together from voter-registration materials, and a ball gown made of campaign posters. Judd will show off these pieces with live models at The Green Inaugural Ball in Washington DC.
Jenna Mack, one of the ball's producers, described Judd's work as "beyond fabulous" and said that Judd was invited to the ball because her work fits well with the theme of the event and the president-elect's expected environmental and conservation policies.
Posted by Hai at 4:15 PM
December 17, 2008Trash Audit at Fletcher
Two days before exams were scheduled to begin, Fletcher School’s trash was examined by Tufts Recycles and barely received an average grade. About 30% by weight of Fletcher’s trash was actually recyclable. This includes paper (18.5%) and commingled glass, metal, and plastic (10.7%). With all that paper in the trash, maybe students need to cut back on the studying and save some trees! The trash sort also revealed a serious eating problem. About 90% of the trash that was not recyclable was compostable! This includes cups, napkins, and some food waste from the numerous functions held in the building. Composting, which is done in dining halls on campus, could be a possibility in Fletcher as well. Until then, if you’re going to eat or study, reduce and reuse, and especially recycle.
Posted by Erin at 3:24 PM
December 1, 2008Rethinking Disposables: An Oceanic Wake Up Call
Returning from Hawaii to California, Ocean Researcher Charles Moore came across a terrifying sight: everyday for one week he saw trash as far as the eye could see from the deck of his research vessel. He conjectures that this polluted area exists from just off the coast of China to within a few hundred miles of California’s edge, which would make it at least 5 million square miles, about one-and-a-half times the size of the United States! Most of the debris was plastic, and Moore and his associates believe that it was washed down rivers into the Pacific Ocean, carried by currents past Central America, by the Phillipines, and on to Japan, picking up more waste all along the way and finally getting stuck in the no man’s land between North America and Asia. Judith Selby Lang, an artist who has been collecting pounds of trash that have washed up on San Francisco beaches, astutely notes “We call things disposable, disposable lighters, disposable this, disposable that. But when we toss it away, it's not really gone, and it's not really gone for a long, long time. Everything ends up somewhere.” If the area is as big as Moore speculates, total clean-up seems nearly impossible. The U.S. government began a few research studies, and in the meantime had encouraged voluntary beach cleanup, but the funding has been moderate thus far. The solution to the heart of the problem begins, above all, with the first of the three Rs: reduce, then reuse, and, very importantly, recycle. Nothing is truly disposable.
Posted by Lucy at 11:56 AM
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