Did you know that the mailroom spends almost $50 every other week (or $1,300 a year) mailing out paychecks to faculty, staff, and students? And that’s just the postage! There’s the printing of checks and envelopes and the staff time to process them. But there is an easy to reduce this number: by signing up […]
Continue readingIt’s official. Having someone stand by the trash/recycle/compost bins makes a HUGE difference. It is even ok that I overheard someone calling me the ‘compost nazi’. If that means less stuff going to the landfill, so be it. The only items that went to the trash: plastic forks, plastic straws from the smoothie guy, and […]
Continue readingOk, so the compostable cutlery melted in the hot soup but not enough in the compost pile (issues we had here in Vermont), but to go back to plastic knives and STYROFOAM?? Really?? How about this novel idea… washable plates, cups, and silverware? Create a job or two, cut down on waste, and in the […]
Continue readingHello, Are you ready for part 2 Beavers? Ah, the joys of composting! I first learned about it when I went to the White Mountain School. We had a much more “hands on” experience than ya’ll do here. Here we just throw our waste into an unseen trash bin and walk away. During high school […]
Continue readingI was reminded the other day that the results of our most recent waste sort were never posted. And so, drum roll…. here they are. I know the charts are a bit blurry… so the summary is that in the Student Center, we are doing better on keeping recyclables out of the trash, but folks […]
Continue readingReduce, Reuse, Recycle!
Hello Beavers, Winter is already here, and I’m sure many of ya’ll have brought out your big jackets or are tempted by all the winter collections at your favorite store. I’ve been eying some lovely cardigans that are being sold at Urban Outfitters….Too rich for my blood, and I’m sure I’m not the only one […]
Continue readingHello, Fellow Beavers, You’ve probably heard your parents talk about ‘back in the day’, when they could buy a Coca-Cola for five cents. The cost inflation isn’t the only thing that has changed since then. It used to be that all soft drinks came in glass bottles- you’ve probably seen the throwback styles sold in […]
Continue readingA recent article in Fast Company shows the complexity of the trash-recycling-composting systems and trying to “solve” the issue of one-use items — notably, coffee cups. The moral of the story? Bring your own. You often get a discount on top of the moral gratitude of not adding more to the waste chain (think: before […]
Continue readingTomorrow night I’m going to talk to the residents of Rowell Hall about electronic waste. In preparation for this, I was doing a bit of web research and came across this great quick film clip — one of many on GOOD Magazine. What do we do with our e-waste at Champlain? We collect it and […]
Continue reading