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Join REP’s 2024 Waste Campaign: Sort Like a Pro with the Waste Wizard

Resource Efficiency Program (REP)

The REP Waste Campaign runs from: October 7-27, 2024.

Harvard Recycling launched a new tool — the Waste Wizard!  

Sorting waste can be tricky!

 

Next time you don’t how to properly dispose of your items, look it up in the Waste Wizard — a database that tells you how to sort waste on-campus.

Visit the Waste Wizard

Being responsible with your waste is a journey —join the adventure with us!

REP student sustainability advocates in your House or Dorm will be hosting tabling events to engage with you on Waste and answer questions!  They will provide information on where waste and reuse resources are in your residence. Don’t forget to play the in-person waste sorting game with them to earn Green Cup points for our yearly competition!

Can’t make your REP’s event? 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.


Featured Resources

Get familiar with all that Harvard Recycling is doing to address our waste on campus!

 

Free Stuff at the Surplus Center

Visit the surplus center to pick up reused items from around campus for free! Weekly Open Hours In Allston for Harvard Affiliates (Mon & Thurs 10am-1pm)

 

 

FreeCycle or FixIt Clinic

Harvard Recycling hosts FreeCycles — events to donate and shop free reused items. No donation required to shop!

 

Also check out FixIt Clinics — where skilled folks help repair items and keep them out of landfills!

 

Sign up for the Havard Recycling Newsletter to be notified of upcoming events!

 

 

Harvard sustainability staff stand next to a poster that says "Earth Day Freecycle."

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/

Learn with REP!

Explore our Linktree: /HarvardREP for a wealth of valuable resources and dive into our ongoing campaigns.

Discover REP campaigns and campus-wide sustainability resources!Opens new window

Students watch a presentation at the 2022 Resource Efficiency Program orientation.

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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

November

03

Monday
8:00 am-8:00 am GMT+0000

Development While Decarbonizing: India’s Path to Net Zero

India’s net-zero ambitions require a profound rethinking of how development and decarbonization intersect—not just in theory, but in the way institutions operate, capital is mobilized, and communities are engaged. This opening panel will explore the structural trade-offs and coordination challenges involved in aligning national climate goals with local development imperatives. It will examine how policy frameworks, financial innovation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems can work together to support transitions that are both equitable and executable. Drawing on cross-sector experience and past fieldwork, the conversation will surface actionable insights on how India—and by extension, other emerging economies—can structure a pragmatic yet ambitious path to net zero.

November

07

Friday
1:00 pm-4:30 pm GMT+0000

Harvard Climate & Sustainability Expo

Are you a Harvard or MIT student or alumni interested in a career in climate and sustainability? The Salata Institute Climate and Sustainability Career Expo is a collaborative effort across Harvard schools and MIT to connect organizations focused on climate, sustainability, and the environment with Harvard undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni. Join us for the next expo on Friday November 7, 2025 from 12:30 – 4:30pm.

October

22

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

International Law & Climate Interventions – Is There a There There?

What does international law say, if anything, about climate intervention research and deployment? What might it say? What should it say? Join us for a lunch seminar titled “International Law and Climate Interventions — Is There a There There?” featuring Daniel Bodansky, Regents’ Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

Daniel Bodansky is the author of The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law (Harvard University Press, 2010; 2nd edition co-authored with Harro Van Asselt, OUP, 2014), which received the 2011 Sprout Award from the International Studies Association as the best book that year on international environmental politics. He also co-authored International Climate Change Law (with Lavanya Rajamani and Jutta Brunnee) (OUP 2017), which received the 2018 Certificate of Merit from the American Society of International Law as the best book that year in a specialized area of international law. Prior to joining the ASU faculty in 2010, he taught at the University of Washington Law School from 1989-1999, served as Climate Change Coordinator at the U.S. State Department from 1999-2001, and held the Woodruff Chair of International Law at the University of Georgia from 2002-2010. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, served on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law from 2001-2011, and is a graduate of Harvard (A.B.), Cambridge (M.Phil.) and Yale (J.D.).

December

03

Wednesday
12:00 pm-1:00 pm GMT+0000

Floods Splintering Earth’s Ice Sheets

Laura A. Stevens is a geophysicist whose research focuses on hydrological drivers of ice-sheet deformation, combining a range of observational techniques and theoretical approaches to understand ice-sheet dynamics in our warming climate. At Radcliffe, Stevens is interrogating a newly collected dataset to explore whether emerging, high-elevation lakes on top of the Greenland Ice Sheet could augment this ice sheet’s contribution to sea-level rise, alongside collaborating with Harvard’s polar oceanographers to reimagine directions for the joint field of fjord-ice-sheet dynamics.

October

29

Wednesday
6:00 pm-7:30 pm GMT+0000

The Environment Forum with Michael Lobel | Van Gogh and the End of Nature

Vincent van Gogh has become indelibly identified with depictions of the natural world, from the variegated colorations of flowers, trees and other types of vegetation to the manifold forms of the terrain. Yet nature— both as concept and experience — was being profoundly reshaped in Van Gogh’s time, particularly through the intense and widespread impact of industrialization. This lecture reconsiders the imagery, historical circumstances, and artistic approach of one of modern art’s most iconic figures, as well as his art’s relevance to threats of climate change and environmental despoliation we face today.

October

20

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

Energy Seminar at Harvard: Anil Achyuta, Partner, Energy Impact Partners

The Energy Seminar at Harvard hosts weekly seminars with leading voices in climate and energy, offering a unique opportunity to engage with the founders, investors, executives, and policymakers driving decarbonization.

Join on 10/20 for a seminar with Anil Achyuta, partner at Energy Impact Partners, for a presentation titled “Peace time and war time VC.” Anil Achyuta is a Partner at Energy Impact Partners’ Frontier Strategy, where he spearheads global investments in early-stage climate tech startups. He oversees fund strategy, portfolio development, and high-impact investments that align financial returns with climate innovation. Previously, Anil was one of the founding members and Managing Director at TDK Ventures, a global frontier tech corporate venture capital fund. While at TDK, Anil spearheaded numerous investments and exits, and served as an Observer on seven Boards.

October

20

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

Harvard Voices on Climate Change: Trade, Tariffs, and Climate

The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability and the Harvard Alumni Association invite you to the next installment of Harvard Voices on Climate Change, a virtual series showcasing Harvard faculty and fellows on different dimensions of the climate challenge.

In this session, Professors Catherine Wolfram, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Joe Aldy, Harvard Kennedy School, both Faculty Co-Leads of the Global Climate Policy Project at Harvard-MIT, will discuss how trade measures such as tariffs, border adjustments, and climate coalitions are shaping the global energy transition. The conversation will examine the intersection of economics, policy, and diplomacy in building a more climate-aligned international trading system.