Sustainability Office

In an effort to increase campus waste diversion, the Sustainability office is working to expand the university’s organics program to include office lunch rooms.

Campus departments are invited to join the campus organics program which focuses on capturing food waste generated by staff who bring their lunches to work.  In order to adequately control the content and quality of the organic collection, an organics collection container is provided for kitchen or lounge spaces as well as an information sheet that outlines what is accepted into the organics program.  This container will be emptied into an exterior 65-gal toter that will sit outside the building and will be picked up every Thursday and transported to a local composting facility.

In order for the program to work, office staff will need to volunteer to empty the smaller interior container into the larger exterior container a few times a week.  Departments interested in participating in this waste diversion program can fill out an Office Organics application located on the PPS website: http://www.queensu.ca/pps/requests/recycle/organic.php or contact the Sustainability office for more information.

During the month of February (2013), the Organics Program participants assisted with a tracking exercise.  Based on responses from 17/28 offices, the office organics program is successfully diverting approximately 650 kg of organic material from the waste stream every month and 7800 kg annually.

Thirty offices on campus are participating in this intiative include: Ban Righ Centre, McArthur Hall, Physical Plant Services, Regional Assessment and Resource Centre, Faculty of Arts & Science, Physics, Office of the Provost & Vice Principal (Academic), CNS, Community Housing, Bracken Library, QUIC, School of Graduate Studies, DBMS, Health Counselling & Disability Services, Gender Studies, School of English, Clinical Trials, Surveillance Studies Centre, Kinesiology & Health Studies, VP Research, Global Development Studies, Marketing & Communications, Financial Services, Environmental Health & Safety, Department of Medicine, Advancement, Four Directions Aboriginal Centre, Cenre for Teaching & Learning, Event Services, Housing & Hospitality Services and the Faculty of Health Sciences.

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