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Join the REP Waste Campaign: Get Recycling Savvy and Play Our Sorting Game

Resource Efficiency Program (REP)

The REP Waste Campaign runs from: October 16-29, 2023.

Sorting like a pro is a journey—join the adventure with us!

Ready to boost your recycling IQ, or are you feeling like a waste whiz already? Take our quiz on those pesky common contaminants and show our waste team what Harvard students know!

*For best visibility on mobile, turn your phone horizontally.

Click to see the answer key here!

For more information on why items are categorized this way: RecycleSmart MA has amazing FAQ’s and Resources.

Waste Regulations

Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office

Ever wondered if we’re being eco-outlaws by accident? Cambridge and Massachusetts have regulations about what belongs in the recycling bin, and what is banned from the trash.

No worries, we all make mistakes and we’re on this journey together to stay on the green side of the law!

The City of Cambridge:

“Recycling is mandatory in Cambridge; items on the curbside recycling list are banned from disposal as trash in Massachusetts.”

Massachusetts Waste Ban Items:

  • Recyclable Paper – ALL paper, cardboard, and paperboard products (does NOT include tissues, paper towels, plates, or cups)
  • Glass bottles and jars
  • Metal beverage and food containers
  • Plastic bottles, jars, jugs, and tubs
  • Textiles – clothing, footwear, linens
  • Food waste from institutions that generate more than ½ ton per week
  • Leaves and yard waste
  • Scrap metal – such as appliances
  • Mattresses
  • CRTs – cathode ray tubes
  • Gypsum wallboard
  • Lead Acid batteries
  • Whole tires
  • Wood waste
  • Asphalt pavement, Brick, Concrete

Waste Management Hierarchy

Let’s work together to prevent waste in the first place!

Graphic that prioritizes waste hierarchy: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Rot, Recycle.
When making decisions about managing our waste, prioritize Rethinking and Reducing waste, recycling and composting is a last resort. Source: https://recyclesmartma.org/2023/09/reframing-the-waste-hierarchy/

Waste Signage Scavenger Hunt

Calling all waste signage sleuths! Use your keen eye by participating in our Waste Signage Scavenger Hunt. Help us locate old, outdated signs in need of a modern makeover!

 

All are welcome to participate; simply snap a picture and upload it to our quick google form. Undergraduates who submit a form will earn points towards the Green Cup Competition for their House or Dorm!

Yellow icon of a magnifying glass and person putting trash in a bin.

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Zero Waste

At Harvard, we aim to sustainably manage all waste streams—including plastics, recyclables, and organics, as well as construction, demolition, and hazardous waste—while prioritizing waste prevention and reduction.

Learn More
Compost sign with symbols and text for food, compostable containers, and other items.

Sustainability at Harvard

Explore Upcoming Events

January

30

Thursday
4:30 pm-5:30 pm GMT+0000

Open to Harvard Community

Harvard Voices on Climate Change: An Ecosystem for Sustainable Computing

IT
Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability

The Salata Institute and the Harvard Alumni Association present Harvard Voices on Climate Change, a virtual series featuring Harvard faculty and fellows working on different dimensions of the climate challenge. This session features David Brooks, Haley Family Professor of Computer Science, and Gage Hills, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, both from the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. As the demand for computational power grows, so does its environmental footprint. Professors Brooks and Hills will explore how advancements in computing can contribute to a more sustainable future. Join us to hear about emerging technologies, energy-efficient designs, and the role of interdisciplinary innovation in addressing climate challenges.

March

05

Wednesday
1:00 pm-2:00 pm GMT+0000

Environments for Health and Happiness: A Seminar with Dr. Lindsey Burghardt

On Wednesday, March 5th, from 1-1:50 PM in FXB G12 or online, please join us for the fourth installment of our Environments for Health and Happiness Seminar Series, featuring Dr. Lindsey Burghardt, Chief Science Officer at the Harvard Center on the Developing Child.

February

11

Tuesday
4:00 pm-5:00 pm GMT+0000

New Orleans, Katrina, and Bounce: A Conversation with Big Freedia

This program is the second in a pair of webinars to explore the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the musical traditions of New Orleans. In the 20th anniversary year of the storm’s devastating landfall in southeast Louisiana, leading performers, artists, and scholars will share their perspectives on art, music, and justice in the context of climate change. How have the performers’ music, practice, and community changed over the last two decades? Can future climate crises be occasions for artistic growth, reimagined community, spurs to social action, and new forms of solidarity? What lessons can New Orleans and its ever-evolving music teach the world about resilience and renewal?

Big Freedia will be joined in conversation with Lauron J. Kehrer (Western Michigan University), a scholar of race, gender, and sexuality in American popular music and Loren Kajikawa (The George Washington University), a scholar of rap and hip-hop, as well as race, gender, and politics.

February

07

Friday
9:45 am-5:30 pm GMT+0000

Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program Conference

The Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, invites you to join us in Cambridge or online for the 2025 Conference, Landscapes of War, Landscapes of Victory: Ukraine’s Changing Environment, February 7-8, 2025. The panels at this year’s conference highlight these essential topics related to Ukraine’s changing environment. Panels will address the current geopolitical landscape and the war’s impact on global issues such as food security; how Ukrainians have been at the forefront of establishing ecocide and environmental war crimes as part of Russia’s repertoire of genocidal tactics in Ukraine and how they might be prosecuted through legal mechanisms; the widespread notion of Building Back Better and the potential to incorporate sustainability standards in Ukraine’s current and future development; and the quickly-changing landscapes of data and technology and their roles in these reconstruction processes. The keynote lecturer is Jojo Mehta (Stop Ecocide International).

February

06

Thursday
4:00 pm-5:00 pm GMT+0000

Hurricane Katrina and the Musical Community of NOLA: A Conversation with Big Chief Bo Dollis, Jr.

Join Big Chief Gerard (Bo) Dollis, Jr. for a conversation about music, community, and strength in the face of climate change, with a particular focus on Mardi Gras Indian traditions and performance. He will be joined in conversation by Emmett G. Price III, dean of Africana studies at Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

January

30

Thursday
12:00 pm-1:30 pm GMT+0000

Introduction to Professor Wolfram Schlenker and Presentation of His Climate Related Work in Agriculture

Join the Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment and the Harvard Alumni for Agriculture and Food shared interest groups to meet the newly appointed Ray A. Goldberg Professor of the Global Food System at the Harvard Kennedy School, Professor Wolfram Schlenker. Professor Schlenker studies the effect of weather and climate on agricultural yields and migration, how climate trends and the US biofuel mandate influences agricultural commodity prices, and how pollution impacts both agricultural yields and human morbidity. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and serves on the Board of Reviewing Editors at Science. Please submit questions you would like to have asked here.

February

04

Tuesday
4:30 pm-6:00 pm GMT+0000

Book Talk: Climate Justice and the University

This talk will be a radical exploration of how higher education can advance transformative climate justice.

Amid the worsening climate crisis and intensifying inequities, higher education can play a powerful role in addressing the intersecting crises facing humanity. Institutions of higher education hold untapped potential to advance social justice and reduce climate injustices. However, universities are not yet structured to accelerate social change for the public good.

In Climate Justice and the University, Jennie Stephens, Professor of Climate Justice at the National University of Ireland Maynooth and a Professor at Northeastern University (currently on leave), reimagines the potential of higher education to advance human well-being and promote ecological health. She will be introduced by John E. Fernández, director of the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiaitve, and converse with Naomi Oreskes, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.