WINNIPEG, MB – Students, faculty and staff returning to The University of Winnipeg this week will be scraping food scraps from their plates into new cafeteria composting bins as the campus joins a handful of leading-edge Canadian universities by introducing a comprehensive waste diversion program. Common cafeteria items such as plastic cutlery, paper plates, coffee cups, stir sticks and salad containers will also be compostable and will decompose in three to six months.
Once fully implemented and combined with the current recycling program, UWinnipeg will be diverting more than 70% of materials that would have been lost to landfill as “waste.” The composting project also allows for a further 4% reduction in campus Green House Gas emissions.
“This is a very significant achievement because we are building a campus culture of sustainability,” said Mark Burch, Director of Campus Sustainability. “This is about each of us changing our behaviour. I am very hopeful that we are dealing with young people in the most environmentally conscious generation ever, and when given the opportunity to show their commitment, they will act on it.”
In 2005, President & Vice-Chancellor Lloyd Axworthy committed to a comprehensive Sustainability Management System for UWinnipeg, the first of its kind in Canada in a university setting. A commitment was also made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the short-term goal of making The University Kyoto Protocol compliant, and the long-term objective of achieving zero net emissions. UWinnipeg recently became the first university in Canada to place sustainability at the executive table by assigning responsibility for this initiative to a Vice-President position.
From September 15 to 19, students on campus will demonstrate their commitment to sustainable practices as The University of Winnipeg Students’ Association hosts its Sustainability Festival with workshops, films and guest speakers. Detailed information is at http://www.theuwsa.ca.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Diane Poulin, Communications Officer, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7135 E: d.poulin@uwinnipeg.ca
