UHN is a big place and, like most big places, we produce a lot of garbage.  Thankfully, UHN also recycles – almost 14,000 pounds of waste was diverted from landfill each and every single day last year, a result of the collective effort of UHNers to make sustainability part of their workday.  And of all the UHN recyclers, there is one person who stands out in my mind as possibly being our top recycler, a recycler extraordinaire among recyclers, our king o’ recycling.

 Let me introduce you to Douglas. 

You see, for the past five or so years, Douglas has been overseeing demolition of The Residence at 90 Gerrard St. West…a big ol’ building made of concrete, steel and all the other parts that going into making big ol’ buildings.  And under his oversight, a good portion of the building has been recycled…around 550 metric tonnes of metal, concrete and sand, equivalent to three months of day-to-day waste diversion at the hospital.  So, as the saying goes, every act of creation is first an act of destruction…but thanks to Douglas, this act of destruction is also an act of recycling.

The demolition of 90 Gerrard.
The demolition of 90 Gerrard.