![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/NEXUS-28-13-COVER-FOR-WEB.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cThat\u2019s the number-one motivator behind everything on the island,\u201d says Christie. \u201cThat\u2019s the one main landfill for all of the Capital Regional District on the lower portion here\u2026 Their incentive is to divert as much material as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camosun has dramatically increased its attempts at diverting, but Christie says we have come to a point where the next step is to seriously look at how we handle waste on campus. Christie points to the University of Victoria, which has a transfer station right on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of their waste goes to one area and gets sorted properly, and they have balers and compactors that reduce the amount of hauling,\u201d says Christie. \u201cMy personal opinion\u2014and I am not representing the college\u2014is that to make the next leap, we are going to have to develop something like that. If costs keep going up, we would like to look at having a transfer station at Interurban, because we have the space there. One of our present haulers is putting together some pricing for us to see if it\u2019s a viable option.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camosun doesn\u2019t have the manpower to do the separation on campus, according to Christie. He says that Waste Management, the company that takes care of the college\u2019s paper, metal, and plastic, says that there is about 30 to 40 percent contamination in those streams.<\/p>\n
\u201cCascades, which is the company that receives our recycling, has multiple methods in place, such as magnets, different conveyor belts; they separate things by weight,\u201d says Christie. \u201cIt\u2019s very high tech, and they are actually able to sort the material out. Sorting isn\u2019t a huge issue. Our biggest issue is in the garbage itself, because 70 to 90 percent of that material does have another stream. It can be composted, or recycled, but right now, we have no system in place; it just goes straight into the garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christie says that, ultimately, student tuition covers waste costs. He says that annual waste-management costs are typically around $180,000 to $190,000. A four-yard bin of garbage costs $64 to take away, while a six-yard bin of mixed paper costs $7, according to Christie, who adds that it\u2019s the failure to divert recyclables from waste that is driving up the cost, which is ultimately paid for by the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is two-fold,\u201d says Christie. \u201c[Sorting waste] would be in their best interest for the planet, and it would help to keep tuition costs down.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing the college has done to try to improve the amount of recyclables going into the garbage is removing garbage cans from classrooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cStatistically, if students get up and go to the hallway with the different bins, the motivation to sort is much greater,\u201d says Christie. \u201cThese are small steps that do have some impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Camosun Environmental Technology instructor Michael Kory teaches a course at Interurban on waste management and mediation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I do is start out with residuals,\u201d he says, \u201cthen air pollution, liquid waste, solid waste\u2014which includes garbage and recycling\u2014and then I go into remediating contaminated sites.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kory says that about 25 percent of the course is waste management, which includes compaction, sorting, and recycling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell my class that just because plastic items or ferrous or aluminum items have a recycling number on them, it doesn\u2019t guarantee that they\u2019ll be recycled,\u201d says Kory. \u201cIt\u2019s often much cheaper to make new stuff than it is to recycle. It depends on the commodity value. They might just take the whole batch and throw it in the landfill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kory says that what\u2019s happening around the world that\u2019s influencing China\u2019s decision is that if plastics are contaminated, it can be too expensive to recycle them. Sometimes it goes to the landfill; sometimes the landfill won\u2019t even accept it. The course also discusses alternative measures such as waste-to-energy, the burning of garbage for electrical power or heat generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn places like Germany, they burn all of their garbage,\u201d says Kory. \u201cThere is some pre-sorting for metals and things. With the technology in air-pollution control, that could reduce a lot of volume. We are always talking about volume at Hartland Landfill, because space is limited and they estimate it will last until 2048. If we burned a lot of our garbage and we were careful with the air pollution and mitigate that, we could reduce a lot of this and there would be a lot fewer residuals put into the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kory says that the new laws in China have effectively closed the doors on much of the waste being imported, but he adds that it\u2019s very early on and things are still changing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have already changed their stance on metals,\u201d says Kory, \u201cbecause they are a very valuable commodity. They have lifted the ban on ferrous metals, copper, and zinc, and they have reduced the specificity of the contamination standards. Metals are still coming in and the fear of that ban is dissipating a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue is that the Chinese government no longer wants to import plastics or a lot of the other waste that Kory says is contributing to pollution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is there is some ideology,\u201d says Kory, \u201cbut there is also some economic consideration around the value of commodities. It\u2019s a lot of the hard plastics, which are everywhere\u2014maybe the chair you\u2019re sitting in or the jug your milk is in. They don\u2019t want the high density polyethylene, and as a result of the Chinese ban, it\u2019s going to go into landfills around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kory says that our waste problem is tied to our standard of living and population growth; he says that people should be provided with the knowledge they need to purchase more efficiently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to educate people on procurement,\u201d says Kory. \u201cNot only people, but Camosun College, or any large organization for that matter, should be careful about who they are buying from and make sure that they are reducing the amount of packaging as well. Companies should have great recycling infrastructure programs and stewardship for the packaging they use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kory says that we as consumers should be buying things with less packaging.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlastic bags are being banned all over the world, for obvious reasons,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the way we purchase that really dictates all of this. If it can be prevented from getting into the waste stream, we would have less to worry about, as far as recycling.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Capital Regional District (CRD) senior manager of environmental resource management Russ Smith watches the market closely in order to manage the waste pickup on the south island. (The CRD owns and operates the Hartland Landfill.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThings have changed with respect to China receiving recyclable materials,\u201d says Smith, \u201cand basically they are not accepting materials with contamination. Globally, it will be harder to move those materials to market as a result. Most of the recycling that comes from first-world recycling programs has a level of contamination that is beyond what is now acceptable under the new rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the CRD, materials picked up through the residential blue box program are typically less contaminated. Recycle BC, a non-profit that manages residential recycling in BC, has been able to maintain both international and domestic markets for recyclables.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the curbside blue box program that is quarterbacked by Recycle BC,\u201d says Smith. \u201cThey deal with residential printed paper and packaging. They actually are under contract to use a plastic sort facility on the lower mainland. We are under contract with them to deliver the service, but they pay for the collection of the materials and then the sorting and marketing of the materials.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith says that the commercial waste that isn\u2019t picked up under Recycle BC is having a little bit more difficulty finding markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to see residual rates in recycling sorting plants at maybe 10 percent, which means that about 90 percent of the materials collected are getting to market,\u201d says Smith. \u201cWe are seeing about double the residuals heading to landfills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith says that the CRD will keep an eye on that trend and then report back to its board within six months, once they\u2019ve determined the direction of the trend and the likelihood that it will stabilize.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will decide whether or not we need to adjust our bylaw and change the way we operate at the landfill, in terms of enforcing bans and potentially redirecting materials,\u201d says Smith. \u201cWe want to ensure that we are incenting the right environmental behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The issue of solid waste management recently outgrew the existing staff numbers here at Camosun, and in November of 2017 Oakley became the college\u2019s facilities operations manager. She oversees the custodial and grounds teams, which are responsible for collecting waste on both campuses and taking it to bins for pick-up. Camosun deals with two third-party contractors that collect waste and recycling from the college.<\/p>\n
\u201cWaste Management will pick up twice a week,\u201d says Oakley, \u201cand they are picking up mixed paper, mixed containers and garbage. I can tell you that of the recyclables, 23 percent of what they are collecting is contamination. Luckily for us, our waste goes to Cascades via Waste Management, and they are doing some further sorting, so they are pulling out the garbage so that everything that is recyclable is making it into the recycling stream.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Oakley, Refuse, the other regular collector, handles compost, soft plastics, and styrofoam, which is stockpiled for pick-up. Oakley says that Camosun also has a program with the Electronic Products Recycling Association, which collects the school\u2019s used electronics.<\/p>\n
Recently, Camosun\u2019s Sustainability department (part of Ancillary Services) ran some workshops here at the college, and Oakley says they are realigning the strategic plan for sustainability with Camosun\u2019s strategic plan. The four areas of focus for the sustainability workshops are waste, food, energy, and transportation. Oakley says that the workshops will likely lead to several initiatives, and one of them will be to do regular tracking and reporting of Camosun\u2019s waste diversion.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The college] is at about a 35 percent diversion rate, maybe 32 percent,\u201d says Oakley. \u201cThat means, of our waste, 35 percent is diverted to a recycling stream. That would include compost, plastics, mixed paper, styrofoam, and soft plastics. There are other things that we\u2019ve been diverting that are not in that calculation, like wood and metal scraps from the trades programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waste collection is documented at Camosun, and, according to Oakley, most of the classroom buildings have a 35-percent diversion rate. She says a major breakdown can be seen when you look at the buildings with food services in them, which are down at a 15-percent diversion rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe back of house is doing a good job,\u201d Oakley says. \u201cThe problem is with the people eating in the cafeteria. The garbage collection within the cafeteria, where people aren\u2019t paying attention to where they are putting their garbage… Everything is going into the garbage and we are only seeing a 15 percent diversion rate, as opposed to [people] taking their time to see where things go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Improvements have been made over the years, but Oakley says that with Camosun\u2019s food services operations at a 15 percent diversion rate, \u201cit\u2019s like looking at low hanging fruit,\u201d adding that there is a real opportunity for improvement. There is signage at every waste station, but the difficulty, says Oakley, is in trying to train 20,000 students that are turning over every two to three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are options for improvement there, because there is a large volume coming through those facilities,\u201d says Oakley. \u201cWe could do something similar to what Hillside [Centre] does, where you bring your tray to a central area and don\u2019t throw anything away. Their team will take care of all of the sorting. They have control over it and train people who put everything in the right spot. There would be a cost impact. [At Lansdowne] we are under contract with Aramark until 2021, so that would be our opportunity to review the practices and update it. Or we could bite the bullet at the college and put a custodial staff member in there to take trays and sort garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camosun director of food and catering services Donna Burger agrees that a centralized area for waste disposal is not a bad idea, but she points out there\u2019s a problem: a lack of trays for students to transport their items on. The college has chosen to have the Lansdowne cafeteria\u2014which Burger is in charge of\u2014be trayless. But there\u2019s a positive side to that: Burger says a trayless system saves a lot of water and chemicals from going into the wastewater stream, as they don\u2019t have to wash the trays.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go into the Hillside model,\u201d says Burger, \u201cyou\u2019re going to add trays to it. It is something to think about. It doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t work with that model, but we gain some and we lose some. Would that be a good model for this cafeteria? It might, and that might be something worth pursuing, but it is not going to solve our problem at the college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burger says that only about 30 percent of people stay in the cafeteria to eat their meal; the rest leave with their food.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can do our part by making what we send them away with compostable or, at the very least, recyclable,\u201d says Burger. \u201cWe use compostable forks, knives, and spoons, for instance. We only buy PET plastics [polyethylene terephthalate plastics, which are easily recyclable]. We have found a company that does compostable sandwich containers for take-out. We haven\u2019t found compostable cups, but we use the PET plastics for those.\u201d<\/p>\n
While a designated sorting service might work in the food-service area, Burger says that with 70 percent of customers taking their food with them, she doesn\u2019t think it would be an overall solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest issue with our waste and recycling is the fact that it\u2019s not sorted,\u201d says Burger. \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s the responsibility of the users to make sure that they sort it properly. We make it as easy as we can in the garbage area. You will hear our cashiers tell customers that the cutlery is compostable. We have tried signage, but that doesn\u2019t work. I think as a society we have stopped looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Camosun College Economics, Statistics, and University Transfer Business instructor Becky Mason sits on Camosun\u2019s Environmental Sustainability Council; Mason says that the college used to pay Waste Management to come in once a year for 24 hours at each campus and weigh, sort, and categorize all of the garbage and project from that what the college would produce in one year.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoughly 90 percent of what we produce is recyclable,\u201d Mason says. \u201cHistorically, our actual diversion rate has not gone above 40 percent, so there is a lot of room for growth. We should be throwing almost nothing away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mason has been taking students to the Hartland Landfill for about 10 years. Every semester she brings a microeconomics class to see the landfill as part of their studies on the economic side of waste management. Mason says that they always have extra space on the bus, so over the years a number of administrators from the college have also gone on the trip. (This year, Julie Oakley and Bill Christie came along.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trip is quite eye-opening for students to be there and see where the garbage goes. The problem that is hard to get past is for an individual person thinking, \u2018What\u2019s one more coffee cup?\u2019 It isn\u2019t until you see it all added up that you can really appreciate the importance of the problem.When the students come back from the trip, they are provided with the waste audit, and then their assignment is to tie what they learn at the landfill to the problem we have at the college and use economic theory to make suggestions. The bottom line is, how can we get that 40 percent up to 90 percent?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of the biggest challenges for Camosun College\u2019s waste management team is dealing with the waste in food service areas. The college is taking a proactive and systematic approach in order to find solutions.<\/p>\n
Culinary Arts chair Steve Walker-Duncan has been working at Camosun since 2003; he says that in the Culinary Arts program, instructors are working with students to reduce waste production from day one.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a programming perspective,\u201d says Walker-Duncan, \u201cone of the key parts is minimizing waste; everything from ordering the proper ingredients to maintaining good handling of those ingredients through the entire process. From ordering to the actual service, and perhaps with leftovers, and if there is a waste component, then that waste is dealt with appropriately by composting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker-Duncan says that all of the organic waste produced, including paper towels and cotton string, goes into composting bins. The bins are picked up weekly by Refuse, which creates nutrient-rich compost for the marketplace. He says the department hopes to further improve the composting program, which he says could be an asset to the college. The Culinary Arts department is currently teaming up with the Employment Training and Preparation program to build a self-contained and sustainable composting program on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have some greenhouses,\u201d says Walker-Duncan, \u201cand they produce microgreens and salad greens for us here at the Culinary Arts department. They are doing some worm composting on a very small scale. That is their own program, but we are certainly looking at ways that we can collaborate more effectively so that, ideally, we can provide the material for compost. It can be composted, they can use it for growing, and then we can close the loop and use those grown products for the culinary program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker-Duncan says that there is a proposal in through the President\u2019s Creativity and Innovation Fund for a viability study on a composting digester here on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of a pilot, the Culinary Arts program would be the main donor of the organic material,\u201d says Walker-Duncan. \u201cHopefully, with a successful pilot, it could be rolled out to incorporate other areas of the college. Ultimately, we would like to see as much, if not all, of our organic material processed here on site and then utilized in our horticulture and farming programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project would then be used as the basis for studies done by Mason\u2019s economics students \u201cto understand the impacts of the food waste supply chain and the related costs and benefits of composting on campus instead of sending food waste off site,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Walker-Duncan says that one of the biggest challenges in waste reduction is in keeping packaging and utensils out of the landfill.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything we are using, from a packaging perspective, we are moving more into compostable and recyclable materials,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have pretty much phased out plastic straws and we are utilizing a plant-based cup, which is compostable. We\u2019re using wooden stir sticks instead of the plastic ones. We\u2019re moving into compostable clamshells as opposed to the styrofoam ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
As it currently stands, there is an added cost; Walker-Duncan says that it\u2019s about double for the compostable packaging and utensils. He says that the program is absorbing as much of that cost as it can, but ultimately it will end up on the consumer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that the costs will go down as they become more common,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing that over the last few years, particularly the paper products. The clamshells and the take-out boxes in particular are not rising in cost; they\u2019re maintaining while costs increase elsewhere. In effect, they are going down.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Camosun manager of campus sustainability Maria Bremner says that in September the college started to refresh its sustainability plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first step was to launch surveys with students and staff to see what was important to them,\u201d Bremner says, \u201cbecause we wanted the plan to reflect the interests and needs of the community. We had over 1,700 students respond to the survey.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the survey, students could choose between four areas of environmental concern; Bremner says waste came out on top, being chosen first by 49 percent of students surveyed. She says that the college recently had an action-planning session where they focused on identifying their goals and establishing recommended actions for the next three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to move forward by presenting that plan to the college executives,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Nothing is solidified yet, but Bremner says she is quite excited about some of the initiatives Camosun is zeroing in on. One of those is how the college will track and audit its waste; if you can\u2019t measure it, you can\u2019t manage it. The college has done spot audits over the years, but it wants to introduce a more formal system that will involve students in the waste-management classes, which will be an exciting learning opportunity for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that everybody at the college wants to do the right thing,\u201d says Bremner. \u201cI\u2019m inspired by the people I work with, and there is a will and a desire to have the college functioning in the most sustainable way we can. It\u2019s a great opportunity for the students to get involved. They value the work that we have done to get to where we are, but a part of my job is to work with Facilities to bring the waste numbers to the students and show them why it\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are programs that actually address sorting, but Bremner says it\u2019s unrealistic to incorporate it into curriculum across the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome ideas came up in the action-planning sessions for ways that we can engage students,\u201d says Bremner. \u201cWe talked about a zero-waste challenge, or other contests and initiatives that let people know it\u2019s important in a way that isn\u2019t academic, because students have enough pressures. We have people from different backgrounds and even different municipalities that have different recycling protocol. We need to convey to people that this is an important priority for the college and they have a role in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s early in the talks, but Bremner says that there are several ideas and initiatives that are going to be put forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about a transfer station,\u201d says Bremner, \u201cand the feasibility study on the biodigester at Interurban was talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bremner says the college is looking for a positive way to engage students, rather than embedding more guilt in the psyche of students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all have to have a sense of responsibility for how we tread on the earth, but do it in a positive way,\u201d says Bremner. \u201cLook at how we can do things differently to create a positive footprint versus a negative footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Walking through the courtyard at Lansdowne Campus this morning, I finished the last sip of my lukewarm coffee. I pulled the lid off to toss the the pieces into the appropriate bins so they could be shipped off to a sorting facility and, eventually, get recycled.<\/p>\n
This has been a morning ritual for as long as I can remember. Hundreds of times in the past, I thought nothing of it, because it would soon be taken away by custodial staff, and my garbage would be someone else\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n
Today, however, I stopped and took the time to look at the contents of the bins. The bins were labelled clearly on their lids, but the contents were indistinguishable. All three containers had paper, returnable bottles, and coffee cups.<\/p>\n
I thought about China\u2019s decision, and about taking the extra moment to put recyclables in their proper place, and thought about how today, it\u2019s reaching a crisis point because we\u2019re not taking the time to do these simple tasks. Hopefully the next time a student writes a story like this for Nexus<\/i> and looks through some recycling bins, they see something a whole lot different than what I saw today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China has long been the world\u2019s largest purchaser of recyclables. It\u2019s been the principal end-market for most of the post-consumer plastics, paper, and other recyclable materials collected in North America. And they made a recent decision that will be felt around the world, including right here in Victoria, and nobody seems to be talking about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,209],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-march-21-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15646,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15645\/revisions\/15646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}