No time to waste
Harvard recycles, reuses, or composts more than half its waste, but a recent audit shows that there is room to further reduce the more than 6,300 tons sent to landfills each year, according to Rob Gogan, associate manager of recycling services in Harvard’s University Operations Services. Gogan, long a champion for reducing Harvard’s waste, presented a snapshot of the University’s progress on Thursday in the latest “Trash Talk” lecture, sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. For each member of the Harvard community, the University generated 307 pounds of trash and recycled, reused, or otherwise removed from the waste stream another 379 pounds in 2011. Of Harvard’s 14,078 tons of refuse, 25 percent was recycled in 2011, 23 percent was composted, 8 percent was reused or otherwise diverted from the waste stream, and 45 percent was disposed of, most in a landfill in New Hampshire. Harvard has made significant strides in...