MONTREAL/September 9, 2008—
Concordia University is proud to announce that today it will begin using a new large-scale composting system. Thanks to this system, located on the Loyola campus in Notre-Dame-de-Grace, Concordia will be the only institution (public or private) in Quebec to collect organic waste to this scale and then compost it on-site.
Within 5 years, Concordia will be composting 100 tonnes of organic waste annually. The previous smaller composting systems operated at the university could only handle fruit and vegetable waste, but the new automated thermophilic system is designed to allow for the processing of dairy, meat and grain products.
Every tonne of organic waste composted on site will save two tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and significantly decrease acid-rain and smog precursors by cutting down on transportation. The compost produced will be used to maintain campus greenspaces. Factoring annual increases in waste disposal costs, this project will provide a return on investment for Concordia within five years.
Concordia was the first university to be certified ICI on recycle by Recyc-Quebec in 2007. R4 Compost received recognition by the City of Montreal and the Conseil régional de l’environnement in 2007 for its vermicomposting facility on the rooftop greenhouse of the downtown campus and was awarded a Forces AVENIR – Environment category prize in 2007 for its composting program. Cementing its position as a leader in sustainability, R4 is also currently developing a technical guide with the financial support of Recyc-Québec that will teach other institutions, businesses and industries how to implement their own on-site composting programs.
R4 Concordia “rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle” is a working group of Sustainable Concordia which concentrates on environmental initiatives while integrating social and economic factors into its decision making.
For more information, visit http://r4.concordia.ca or contact Louise Hénault-Ethier at 514-848-2424 ext. 7351 or recycle@alcor.concordia.
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Source :
Tanya Churchmuch
Senior Media Relations Advisor
Concordia University
