Construction Blog

An exciting update to our recycling initiatives: a preliminary report from CSR Eco Solutions, the company contracted to recycle old furnishings, equipment, computers, etc. from the Bora Laskin Library move over the summer, indicates that approximately 150 metric tonnes of materials were diverted away from landfills.

CSR donates, recycles and reuses materials from large institutions, governments and hospitals and many of the items find new homes at charitable organizations, or are sent overseas to developing countries.

Read our updated Reusing and Recycling before Renovating story.

Although we’re only two weeks into the school year, the transition space at Victoria College is already starting to feel like home. The Victoria College campus possesses an undeniable charm: many of the wood floors creak softly under your feet; vines creep steadily up the stone walls; and massive trees provide a beautiful canopy over the courtyard. I feel fortunate to be in such a beautiful place that is still so close (just across the street in fact) to our true home at Flavelle House and Falconer.

The thing that has surprised me most about the transition space is how much I serendipitously run into my law school classmates, despite the fact that we are more dispersed than normal. The law student common room at Birge Carnegie has been getting a ton of traffic, and everywhere I turn there are law students – a great feeling indeed!  

For the first two weeks some of my colleagues sat at an “Ask Me” booth in Birge Carnegie, ready to help a lost law student find his or her way, or answer any general inquiries about the new space. I’ve really loved how this time of transition has afforded law students opportunities to step up and assist each other acclimatize to our new surroundings, which I think has helped to continue fostering that sense of community that is so prevalent at UofT Law.

Recycling efforts diverted approximately 150 metric tonnes away from landfills

The Swap Shop on campus is normally kept busy with the odds and ends that arrive from small to medium-sized moves across the university.

But for the Faculty of Law’s Bora Laskin Library and staff move that occurred over the summer, the “big guys” were called in, says Reno Strano, waste management supervisor in the Department of Facilities and Services.

The recycling rate was more than 90 percent, an excellent achievement for a moving project of this size.  In comparison, the overall diversion rate for the U of T campus last year was 72 percent, he says.

"For very large moves, we subcontract to CSR Eco Solutions. The company recycles old furniture and equipment and more to local charities and even Third World countries,” says Strano. As of September 20th, preliminary reports from CSR indicate about 150 metric tonnes of old equipment, materials, computers, etc. were diverted away from landfills.

We know that the Faculty of Law has fully inhabited the transitional space in the Birge-Carnegie Building when the iconic busts of Bora Laskin and Cecil Wright have taken up residence there, migrating from their previous haunts in what is now the new building construction zone.