“Put a Sock in It!” Trash talking increases as Cambrian College looks to reduce its carbon footprint

SUDBURY – There is a lot bluer language in the cafeteria at Cambrian College, all to lower the college’s carbon footprint.

Cambrian has installed the OscarSort trash sorting system, to increase the amount of material that goes into the blue and green bins.

OscarSort scans your disposable items and then tells you where it goes, eliminating any guesswork. The machine also talks, encouraging users to keep diverting waste from landfills. The goal is to increase the number of items that go into recycling and composting, as opposed to trash.

At the other end of the cafeteria, the college has also installed two bins from the company, SicSox Circular. The bins collect old textiles before they find their way to the garbage and eventually a local landfill.

Items that go in the SicSox bins include clothing, bedding, towels, pillows, gently used shoes and handbags, and stuffed animals. The collected textiles are processed at SicSox’s headquarters in Brunswick House First Nation, near Chapleau. Gently used donations will be cleaned and resold online while the remaining material is then shredded to break the textiles down into cellulose fiber with a goal of eventually becoming industry-approved housing insulation.

“OscarSort and SicSox are two great ways to help us reduce our carbon footprint here on campus and find easy and simple ways so we can all start making a larger collective impact on our environment,” explains Janneke Nicholls, Cambrian’s vice-president of finance, administration and applied research. “We are also pleased that by partnering with SicSox, we are supporting a northeastern Ontario, Indigenous-led company, so it’s a win for the environment and for a neighbouring northern community.”

These new measures are part of Cambrian’s strategic priority to promote a more environmentally sustainable campus with a smaller carbon footprint, while advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development goals.

Other initiatives introduced on campus this year include more bicycle racks on that can accommodate wide-tire and electric bikes, a bicycle repair station, and designated parking spots for people who carpool.