Humber and BEST's Waste Reduction Solutions
It is critical for institutions to pay more attention to the waste they produce, not simply focus on a system to remove trash. Humber college works with BEST Service Pros to do waste management as an opportunity to improve our sustainability efforts.
The first step is tracking the amount of wastes generated at Humber College. Tracking the waste and recycling provides the key foundation for a successful waste reduction program. We formed BEST Staff Waste Sorting to train all BEST staff on new stream sorting rules, and ensuring all staff understand what a contaminated bag looks like, what to do with them, and how to ensure they follow health and safety rules throughout this process. Then we coordinated with waste hauler to showcase the waste journey at the facility.
Next, reducing the number of office bins pilot project. We work on a plan to reduce the 2 desk-side bins, to only one recycling bin, by each desk in all offices at Humber. It started when BEST staff were noticing that only a few waste items would be left in the bins, but would still need to change them, which accumulates a lot of plastic waste. The plan was to reduce to one recycling bin, and office staff member is responsible for emptying their own recycling bin, and taking their waste to a centralized sorter near their office. The pilot is currently running in the IGS building at Humber, which is a new building acquired by BEST.
We also created new signs that were based on new sorting rules from waste hauler at Humber and created new compactor signs that have both photos and words, to ensure all members of Humber community understand it. Lastly, engagement with students and staff at Humber through social media content called “Waste Wednesdays”. This program is led by our BEST team member, Safa, to include 5-6 slides that appear on the Humber Sustainability Instagram, including information on an interesting aspect of waste related to Humber. She works on waste webinars and answers questions from students and staff on how items are recycled, such as batteries or E-waste. Safa is also managing at home waste audits, where she provides students and staff google sheets they fill in to evaluate their waste audit based on their municipality and give them tips on where to recycle certain items.
Looking at 2022, we are striving on more sustainability efforts for our community and we're grateful to work with a partner who values that.