The Pitch In program is designed to make recycling and discarding waste as easy as 1-2-3. Waste and recycling are now three bins found together in hallways and nicknamed trios. Each bin is labelled either Paper, Containers, or Landfill and complemented by a colorful sign that lets you know what goes where. This sets people up to make the right decision every time! This program was a finalist for the AASHE Sustainability Award 2017. Waste haulers and what they accept differ at campus locations, so signs may vary.

Sorting it Out

Containers. This bin is for items with the recycling symbol and corresponding number accepting everything but #6, glass, or coffee cups. Acceptable materials often consist of milk cartons, plastic bottles, and food tins.

Paper. This bin is for paper, boxboard (cereal  & Kleenex boxes etc),  books, magazines, and flyers (even glossy). We separate this stream from containers to ensure that our paper is uncontaminated, so it can live on for many more lives. We ask that all large cardboard boxes are flattened and slide behind the bins.

Landfill. The bin of last resort. Anything that can’t be diverted through Paper or Containers, like single-use coffee cups, goes here.

For the Hall it! program, we removed all garbage and recycle bins from classrooms so that students and staff use the trios in the hallway.

This keeps classrooms cleaner and leads to a more thoughtful disposal process.

When food waste goes into the landfill, food scraps ferment and emit large amounts of the dangerous greenhouse gas methane.

Composting properly manages this decomposition eliminating methane from producing. Waste such as fruit and veggie scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, fish, meat and dairy are all collected through two different programs:

Notre Dame Campus: Pre-Consumer Compost Program

Pre-consumer composting is often prep waste and unserved leftovers from kitchens. Culinary Arts students and Food Services collect the waste that is then weighed by the Recycling Team and transported to an on-site compost pile managed by the Grounds Department. The finished compost is used to fertilize the College’s grounds and flower beds.

Here’s a look at our annual compost weights over the years:

NDC Annual Organics Collection

	2016	2017	2018
Annual Totals (kg)	22,507	21,314	19,961
Annual Increase (%)	—–	-6%	-7%

Paterson GlobalFoods Institute: Pre and Post-Consumer Compost Program

PGI Campus has both a pre and post-consumer composting program. Not only are food scraps gathered from kitchens, there is also a compost waste stream for customers. These bins are in the Annex and accept that last bite you just couldn’t finish, your napkins, wood stir sticks, and even your take-out container!

Thanks to you, Food Services, Culinary Arts kitchens, Culinary Exchange kitchen and cafeteria, and Jane’s restaurant, our compost weights continue to grow:

Red River College PGI Campus Annual Organics Collection

	2016	2017	2018
Annual Totals (kg)	73,300	61,290	64,780
Annual Increase (%)	—–	-16.38%	5.69%

Recycling your writing instruments such as pens, markers, highlighters and mechanical pencils, as well as small household batteries and plastic bags help divert waste from the landfill. All these items can be toxic to the environment. Here’s how you can help:

ReBin

Our ReBins collect markers, pens, and pencils that then get sent to Staples Recycling Program, to be made into new recycled products like these here. Plastic bags can also be disposed here and go to Winnipeg Harvest’s Bag It Forward Program, supplying emergency food kits to over 64,000 Manitobans monthly.  

Notre Dame Campus Locations:

• Outside the Campus Store, Mall Level
• In the Library, Mall Level

Roblin Centre Locations:

• Outside the Campus Store, Atrium

Battery Recycling

You can keep batteries out of the landfill by putting them in battery bins. These boxes are intended to collect small, household batteries only. Unsure? Click here. Contact RRC Health & Safety for any industrial, non-household or damaged battery disposal.

All offices spaces have a desk-side recycling bin with a mini landfill bin attached. Keeping the garbage bin smaller than the recycling bin helps make recycling your first thought. These bins are for paper, boxboard (cereal, Kleenex boxes, etc.), books, magazines, and flyers (even the glossy ones)! When this bin gets full, we ask all staff to empty their desk-side recycling bin into centralized office half-moon bins.

Need a desk-side or a half-moon bin?

Notre Dame Campus
Recycling Team
204-632-3798

Paterson GlobalFoods Institute
Recycling Team
204-631-3406

Roblin Centre
Recycling Team
204-632-2144

Regional Campuses
Sustainability Coordinator
204-632-2144

The College aims to recycle as much paper as we can and keep your documents confidential. All contents from shred consoles are shredded and recycled by Phoenix Recycling. Depending on your location and needs, there are two options for bins:

Temporary Shredding Bin (Rolling Exam Bin)

Temporary bins are perfect for large volumes of materials usually produced during office clean-ups, moves, or exam purges. Depending on your location, these may be available to you. Please note that these bins are subject to availability:

Notre Dame Campus
204-632-3798

Patterson Global Foods
204-631-3406

Roblin Centre
204-632-2144

Office Shredding Console

Permanent consoles are bins that remain in one location and are to be shared by multiple offices and/or departments. Schedules for emptying of the bins happen either bi-weekly or monthly. Find the location of a bin near you.

Contact the Sustainability Coordinator
204-632-2144

To have used or unused toner collected from your location, please reach out to the email address below:

Xerox DCA
gwilliams119@RRC.CA

Electronic waste, also known as e-waste, includes all electrical or electronic materials that have reached their end of life.  This includes anything from monitors to electric pencil sharpeners! When these items are not discarded properly, they can leak toxic chemicals into the environment. Our e-waste program aims to ensure that these items are disposed of safely and accordingly by the EPRA to make sure these items stay out of the landfill. For a full list click here. Here is how to dispose of your items:

IT Equipment: College Owned

If your item has an asset tag and is considered IT equipment such as monitors and laptops, please fill out a Case Log here.

College Assets

If your item is not considered IT equipment but has an asset tag such as fridges and microwaves, please contact Materials Management at the number below:

Linley James – Materials Management
204-632-3798

Confidential Media

Confidential media stores personal, confidential, proprietary, or sensitive data. This type of media includes USB sticks, external hard drives, DVDs, CDs, diskettes and used printer ribbons. To ensure the data stays private, items are sent to Phoenix Recycling where they are shredded into a fine particulate. If you have confidential media waste, please contact:

ITS
204-632-2041

General E-waste

For all other e-waste items from your office such as VHS tapes and computer accessories, the Recycling Team can be called to come pick it up. For large office and home purges, we host two e-waste drives during the year. One is in April for Earth Week, and the second in October for Waste Reduction Week. This is the time to clean out your office and bring in all those unfixable items from home, and drop them off at a designated drop-off location! For a complete list of e-waste materials we can take off your hands, click here.

If you are from a regional campus, a list of the closest EPRA drop-off locations are below:

Portage La Prairie
Portage & Dist. Recycling
Address: 700 Phillips St., Portage La Prairie, Manitoba R1N 3B9
204-856-5520

---

Winkler
Gateway Resources
Address: 1582 Pembina Ave. W, Winkler, Manitoba R0G 1R0
204-325-7304

Pembina Valley Containers
Address: 160 Grant Ave., Morden, Manitoba R6M 1Y4
204-822-6859

---

Steinbach
Steinbach Eastman Recycling
Address: 60 Industrial Rd Steinbach, Manitoba R5G 1X1
204-326-9681

RM of Desalaberry
Address: Berard Rd St Pierre-Jolys, Manitoba R0A 1V0

---

Selkirk
Staples *not a full collection site
Address: 1026 Manitoba Ave Selkirk, Manitoba R1A 4M2

Salvation Army
Address: 25 Furniture Park Road Winnipeg, Manitoba R2G 1B9

Stumped?

Still stumped on where your e-waste should go? Reach out to the Sustainability Coordinator.