At McGill, non-hazardous waste is sorted into four streams. See the tabs below for more information on how to sort your waste.
Compost (brown)
Organic materials go in the brown compost stream. Anything that was once a living organism is considered organic material, including food waste, paper products, and bamboo utensils.
Paper / cardboard (blue)
Clean and dry paper and cardboard should go into the blue stream.
Plastic, glass, and metal recyclable containers and packaging (yellow)
The yellow stream is for mixed recycling: Plastic, glass, and metal. For plastics, look for the Mobius triangle (triangle made up of three arrows) on the bottom to find the resin number. Some plastic items from lab are too small to carry the number, these are accepted if their packaging indicates the resin number and if they are bundled as described here: https://mcgill.ca/x/w9X.
Before you place an item in the yellow stream, make sure it is clean and empty and separate the lids from your containers, unless it's a small cap of less than 2 inches in circumference.
Landfill (black)
The very last option. However, remember that it’s better to throw something in the landfill than to potentially contaminate a whole bag of well-sorted recycling. If you cannot empty your container or of if you are not sure how to sort your item, when in doubt, throw it out.
Hazardous Waste
Hazardous Waste Management (HWM) provides a full hazardous material disposal service to the McGill community at both Macdonald and Downtown Campus. Disposal of waste is free of charge to internal departments, provided the waste is coming from research activities and presented in a proper manner.
| YES | NO |
|---|---|
| Biomedical, chemical or radioactive waste | |
| Batteries: Battery collection bins can be found in the main areas of major buildings on both campuses, including residences. | Contact Hazardous Waste Management for any inquiries |