Reduce waste, a field trip and other initiatives by SostA

On 3 May, about twenty students, assistants and collaborators of the Academy of Architecture visited the waste collection and recycling company Puricelli SA in Riva San Vitale, to see first-hand what involves the disposal of waste produced during educational activities. An opportunity to take stock of some ongoing or future measures to reduce waste and raise awareness as part of the initiative SostA - towards a sustainable university.

At the Academy of Architecture, during the school year, 800 registered students are asked to elaborate and build models. This unique educational activity produces an important volume of waste: plotter prints use the equivalent of 80 km of paper per year and the material used for the models generates about 125 waste buckets, including paper, cement, plaster, wood and other bulky material.

A series of measures to reduce waste, increase recycling, and from 2020, to increase the number of models built with sustainable materials have been undertaken at Mendrisio campus within the initiative SostA – Verso un Ateneo sostenibile.

Such measures include a larger space for selective collection of waste, and the involvement and empowerment of students and teaching staff.

A sustainability course will by held by Prof. Muck Petzet in the autumn semester 2019, and it will also focus on the study of innovative ways and materials to build environmental friendly models, by reducing the use Styrofoam, of plaster, and cement which are hard to recycle and whose production releases high amounts of CO2. Moreover, thanks to the Student Orgnisation OSA, a space is being set up in collaboration with the Logistics Service to collect waste materials that are still usable, which are thus made available to students free of charge.

Several waste collection measures are also underway or in preparation on Lugano campus. All the information on this subject can be found on the website of the SostA initiative: www.sosta.usi.ch