Partnerships
SFU and Binners’ Project pilot waste audit on Burnaby campus
If you noticed waste-pickers sorting through garbage at the Burnaby campus on Jan. 29th, it was all in a good cause.
SFU’s Re-use for Good initiative partnered with Binners’ Project—a network of binners, also known as waste-pickers—to conduct a waste audit that will reveal how the university community is discarding single-use plastics and products (SUPPs).
The Re-use for Good zero-waste initiative aims to reduce single-use plastics and products on the university’s campuses. The waste audit, which uses the services of binners who are considered experts in waste diversion and recycling, is a first-of-its-kind pilot between Binners’ Project and a post-secondary institution.
“We’re excited to be piloting our new waste audit program with SFU,” says Iris Ting, social-enterprise programs manager for Binners’ Project. “Over the course of two days, nine of our members used their expertise as informal recyclers to sort, weigh and record exactly how much of SFU’s waste is properly diverted.”
Ting says waste-audit results can reveal the next steps for residential, commercial and institutional sites to improve their waste systems—through training and waste education, signage and processes that change the behaviour around proper recycling.
The SFU audit’s findings, to be released in a report later this spring, will focus on the university’s waste contamination of both recycling and landfill streams. The analysis will help to improve data reporting and inform future decisions about managing and reducing plastics and waste on campus.
“One of the most exciting aspects of Reuse for Good is that we have a unique opportunity to pilot test programs that have never been done before,” says Kayla Blok, manager, campus sustainability. “Through this project, we’re making a concerted effort to integrate social impact wherever possible. This collaboration with Binners’ Project is a great example of that. We’re thrilled that we can offer a testing ground for them to scale up their services, and subsequently their positive impact in Metro Vancouver and beyond.”
SFU and Binners’ Project have worked together in the past to pilot a back-of-house sorting program at SFU. Binners’ Project has since expanded the sorting program to serve nine ongoing institutional contracts. It is Binners’ Project’s most successful program.
