Following Metro Vancouver’s recent ban on organic waste in landfills, SFU is gearing up to push for better recycling habits within the university community.
The ban went into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, imposing a new year’s resolution on the region’s 21 municipalities.
The goal is to have everyone sort out all of their organic waste from their trash. In order to aid the transition, Metro Vancouver has allotted the next six months as an “education period,” and will not be administering fines until July.
Carrie Hightower, Metro Vancouver’s technical advisor for Zero Waste implementation, noted the harm that comes from leaving organic waste in landfills. “When this goes into a landfill it produces methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas.”
“Every time we throw something away, we’re throwing away everything that went into producing that food,” she continued.
The SFU Sustainability Office and Facilities Services have taken a leadership role in reducing waste at the university, launching a Zero Waste campaign at SFU just last year. Zero Waste coordinator Rachel Telling explained that, with this new policy in place, the Sustainability Office will be increasing their education efforts — a full-time job, as Telling pointed out that SFU has “a constantly changing population, with new students all the time.”
Part of this effort will include streamlined signage and clarification on how to sort waste on the front end — when waste is transferred from the consumer to the bin — as well as how recycling is handled behind the scenes. The Sustainability Office will offer training to food waste handlers on campus to help them adjust.
Telling also emphasized that she hopes that students take the message with them off-campus as well. “It’s our role to educate beyond what just happens here [at SFU],” she said.
Individual households will not feel the effects of the ban immediately, though Metro Vancouver encourages citizens to begin sorting out organic waste more thoroughly. Larger institutions, like SFU, and food service providers are expected to clean up their recycling process during the education period.
“Every time we throw something away, we’re throwing away everything that went into producing that food.”
Carrie Hightower, Metro Vancouver, technical advisor, Zero Waste implementation
Seeing as Metro Vancouver only takes care of the “end of life” handling for solid waste, the fines can only be placed on waste collectors who bring in organics, who will then pass these on to their clients who have generated the waste.
Waste will be inspected as it is brought in, and checked for a composition limit of 25 per cent or less organics. This limit will be reduced to 10 per cent in 2016, and five per cent in 2017.
SFU Dining Services has also been working to support the Zero Waste movement. General manager Mebs Lalani stated, “We’ve been separating our compost from our regular waste for over a year.”
He went on to say that all packaging used in SFU Dining Services establishments is eco-friendly, from their fettuccine pasta stir sticks to utensils made from sugar cane.
Lalani also mentioned that introducing clear bins “turned the program around,” since it made it easy for staff to see whether or not recycling procedures were being followed.
He echoed the sentiment of others that, even if things improve systemically, it ultimately comes down to individuals sorting their waste properly. “Always, the greatest challenge is breaking habits.”
