McGill Sustainable Events Certification Program Waste Sorting

Why? Providing properly marked waste receptacles is the first step to reducing waste produced from your event. By clearly communicating the existence and location of these receptacles, you are ensuring that any waste from your event is disposed of properly and helping to raise awareness of proper sorting practices on campus.

How? We recommend preparing waste sorting into three groups: compost, recycling, and landfill. All waste receptacles should be properly labelled and communicated to the event attendees. There are o​ fficial signages for different waste streams ​ that you can use to label the receptacles if there is not already a sign at the venue. You should make these signages visible, and verbally communicate which waste items should go into which bins.

Most buildings at McGill provide r​ ecycling​ bins, and recyclables should be separated into two streams: paper/cardboard and glass/metal/plastic. Should you have any questions about the recycling system in each building, contact the b​ uilding porter​.

Currently, there is no centralized pick-up system at McGill for ​compostable waste​ like there is for landfill and recycling. At present, there is compost services available only in the residence cafeterias: Royal Victoria College, Bishop Mountain Hall, Carrefour Sherbrooke, Douglas Hall, and New Residence. Some other individual units have also organized compost collection, namely AUS Snax, Première Moisson, Starbucks Carrefour, the Faculty Club, Midnight Kitchen, Thompson House and the MORE houses. If your event is not hosted in any of these locations, nor with any of these caterers, there are a few options: ● If the amount of compost is less than 5L (small bin), you could place the materials in one of the three compost bins in the lobby of McConnell Engineering Building, available under a pilot project by McGill. The compost should be in a certified biodegradable bag. ● If the amount of compost is more than 5L, you should contact ​McGill Special Events ​ to set up a small contract with Compost Montreal for compostable waste collection. ● Alternatively, if you have compost collection services at home, you can always collect your organic waste in a container throughout the day and then dispose of it in your compost at home.

These three bins are considered small, medium, and large, respectively: