In the belly of a trash compactor, ketchup packets pop inside paper bags. The compactor ram crushes food containers and Tim Hortons cups, squeezing leftover liquids onto unfolded Amazon boxes. This is a typical recycling load at York.
York’s ZeroWaste program is a crucial part of its commitment to sustainability. But across the university, custodians, grounds workers, and environment experts say the community has a lot to learn when it comes to recycling.
Waste collected from indoor and outdoor triple recycling bins is allegedly highly contaminated with non-recyclable items, compromising its repurposing value.
Director of the Circular Innovation Hub, Professor Calvin Lakhan suggests that convincing community members to participate in recycling is one of the hardest parts of sustainable waste management.
Contamination is one of the main factors affecting the quality of recyclable materials
Lakhan, who has devoted the last decade to researching how to reduce the harm of waste on the environment, explains that contamination of recycling with residual food or liquids ruins the quality of the materials that could be salvaged and reused.
“If you have peanut butter in your jar and it gets on the newsprint, it contaminates the newsprint. Or if you left some water inside of your water bottle and it spills out onto the newspaper, it ruins the newspaper,” Lakhan says.
In 2022, York’s sustainability report showed the university had a recycling rate of 75 per cent – “the highest of any post-secondary institution in Ontario.”
However, because York’s recycling is transported outside of the university for processing, York does not have data to show how much of that waste was contaminated. York’s waste audits also do not measure contamination levels in recyclable materials.
A York staff member who chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal says community members perform poorly in following recycling guidelines.
York has 73 triple recycling bins across campus, with separate sections for paper, bottles, and garbage. “Most of it is getting mixed up as it goes through our community members,” the source says. “Nothing gets separated.” As a result, everything from the triple recycling bin sometimes goes to the same compactor.
According to Lakhan, “contamination rates of the printed paper and packaging stream are in excess of 33 per cent.” This means that for every tonne of recycled material, only 67 per cent would be usable.
Nicole Arsenault, the program director for sustainability, has been looking for ways to educate York community members about recycling properly, from intercepting students next to high- traffic areas to doing drop-in sessions in class.
According to Arsenault, non recyclable coffee cups pose one of the biggest threats to circular reuse as they can often be placed into the wrong bin. “Often people think, ‘Oh, it’s recyclable. Oh, it might be compostable.’ People don’t know what to do with them properly,” she says.
Not all of the contamination is attributed to misplaced garbage items. The city of Toronto’s single stream recycling collection system means all recyclable items go into one bin and later get re-sorted at a dedicated facility. This significantly increases the likelihood of contamination.
“A lot of [contamination] just transpires because of the nature in which the material is collected and how it flows through the system,” explains Lakhan.
“The most [the city] can do is explain to people: ‘Clean out your jars or your tubs and lids, make sure that you drain residual liquids, [and] make sure you remove coffee grinds from the little K-Cups.’”
Sense of belonging can shape recycling habits
While for some students, York is a home away from home, 90 per cent of York students are commuters.
“There’s a lot of behavioural research that shows that unless you feel like you’re part of a community, rates of recycling tend to be much lower,” Lakhan says. He believes this to be the case at commuter universities such as York.
“In an apartment building, people recycle much less than a condo because there’s no sense of ownership. Something similar happens on university campuses: if you’re a commuter, you don’t necessarily feel like you’re part of that community. So it becomes much more difficult to cultivate that sense of collective responsibility.”
Lakhan also cites York’s “heterogenous demographic” as a reason for the differences in recycling habits on campus. According to Lakhan, “attitudes towards recycling and sustainability also differ greatly across ethnic and cultural lines.”
Almost a fifth of York students are international from 178 different countries.
“I come from a country called Guyana, which is in South America, and there is no such thing as recycling. We incinerate all of our waste,” Lakhan says.
“Because so many of our students are international students who may not necessarily have a prior experience or participation in recycling initiatives, sometimes it’s really difficult to get them on board.
“One of the things that we found to be very effective was to engage with religious and cultural institutions.
“When a religious leader tells you to recycle, it means a hell of a lot more than the city of Toronto telling you to recycle,” he notes.
Another issue that could affect engagement in waste diversion initiatives is bin placement. Placing organics collection bins near food traffic areas can pose issues with odours and bacteria contamination, reducing practical and efficient placement options.
“We do a really, really great job when it comes to printed paper and packaging,” Lakhan says. “However, there are opportunities for improvement on the organic side of things.”
Where does it all go?
According to York’s 2022–2023 Sustainability Impact Report, the average York University student generates almost 55 kilograms of waste on campus each year. Of that, 43 per cent is put in the trash and directed to the landfill, while 57 per cent is recycled or composted.
Recycling from the Keele and Glendon campuses is picked up by York’s Facilities Services and taken to a material recycling facility for processing. Landfill waste in turn is collected by GFL, York’s contract waste management partner.
According to Lakhan, on the whole, York’s diversion rate has stayed relatively steady.
Statistics to support that story are hard to come by. The COVID-19 pandemic — when less waste was generated on campus — has played a major part in reducing the diversion of recycled waste by 75 per cent, from 2,650 metric tonnes in 2018–2019 to 735 metric tonnes in 2021–2022.
However, in 2024, 77 per cent of waste was diverted from landfills, according to the Sustainability Report, suggesting York is back on track when it comes to recycling and composting.
Despite these statistics, the responsibility for generating less waste and creating materials that can actually be upcycled rests with the everyday efforts of York community members.
The lack of comprehensive contamination data leaves us to only assume that the York community is giving its best effort toward sustainable recycling habits.
