Following a successful phase 1 of the waste pilot project at Marine Drive residence in Winter 2025, SHCS Facilities and Building Services, in coordination with the SEEDs Sustainability Program, is rolling out phase 2 based on the research results from phase 1.

From September to December, housekeeping staff will collect food scraps bins from each unit, and replace compostable bags, on a standardized schedule. Phase 1 research showed that collecting food scraps bins, rather than requiring students to bring their own food scraps to the basement waste sorting rooms, more than doubled the overall recycling rates in the buildings where that intervention was tested. Phase 2 is an opportunity to roll the program out residence wide. Based on results, we hope to roll this program out long-term at Marine Drive and expand it to additional year round residence areas—as part of our efforts to help UBC meet our collective zero waste goals.