Waste Reduction Week 2009 (Oct. 19-25) was a success at Red River College as staff and students participated in a variety of activities to encourage them to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Vermicomposting Demonstration

Greenspace Management instructor Ruth Rob gave a demonstration of vermicomposting — a method of processing organic waste using Red Wriggler worms. Ruth was kind enough to offer an explanation for the RedBlog cameras:

Reusable Mug Sale

Urged on by a new poster that showed the staggering amount of disposable cups the College uses every year, coffee drinkers took advantage of a great deal on reusable mugs. In total 245 mugs were sold, which is equivalent to diverting 49,000 cups from the landfill each year.

Composting Lunch & Learn

A representative from Resource Conservation Manitoba gave a noon-hour workshop on composting.

Recycling Facility Tour

A dozen staff from different areas of the College toured the
facility that sorts through millions of tonnes of recyclable material
collected by the City of Winnipeg each year.

Recycling Bin Giveaway

Dozens of the College's old metal recycling bins were given away for reuse as planters and storage containers.

Waste Reduction Quiz

Congratulations to Notre Dame Campus student Max B. who won a $50 RED card for answering all the following questions correctly:

• The average person produces 5 pounds of waste every day.
• Staff and students at the Notre Dame Campus go through 600,000 paper cups a year.
• Paper is the most recycled material at the College. It comprises 50% of all materials recycled at the College, and it equivalent to every staff and student discarding 14 pounds of paper every year.
• Tim Horton’s cups cannot be recycled. The plastic lids can be recycled from your residential blue box, but our recycling provider does not accept them.
• Yes, the stack of paper cups used by the College in just one year would be taller than Mount Everest.