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head shot of Kaylia Little
Monday, April 24, 2023

Ph.D. Candidate selected to attend an international meeting of Arctic academics and practitioners in Washington, DC

Sustainability Management Ph.D. Candidate Kaylia Little recently returned from Washington, DC, where she attended a working meeting with 30 international academics and practitioners working in Arctic spaces. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together a diverse group of Arctic professionals to share current work, identify challenges to and opportunities for cross-border and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Attendees came from Canada, Sweden, Norway, Greenland, Iceland, and of course, the USA. The Arctic is a critical region that is experiencing significant environmental, social, and economic changes due to climate change, which can have implications for the entire planet. As a result, there is a pressing need for collaborative research that involves diverse perspectives and disciplines to address the challenges facing the Arctic. The meeting provided a unique space for open discussions about the challenges of Arctic research collaboration, which is essential for promoting effective and meaningful research especially in a region that is traditionally successful at international cooperation. After presenting current research projects, all participants identified points of collaboration across attendees. In addition to the workshop-style meeting, there were opportunities to network with Arctic public service employees in DC and hear from National Geographic archivists about their vast polar records. The meeting was very successful with its goals of creating cross-disciplinary and cross-border networks. The groundwork was laid for joint publications and projects across the attendees at this initial meeting. The excitement of the meeting will continue with online collaboration that will be facilitated over the course of the summer before the group reconvenes in Alaska this fall. Dr. Victoria Herrmann of Georgetown University organized the meeting through a National Science Foundation grant which created the Migration in Harmony Research Coordination Network (https://migrationharmony.org/about).
laptop and notebook
Friday, April 21, 2023

Best SEED PhD Qualifying exam

SEED wishes to congratulate L. Feor and D. V. Jones on receiving the Best SEED PhD Qualifying exam. The Qualifying Exam Committee recognized both of these papers for their unique and ambitious answers, depth and breadth of knowledge, critical thinking and writing quality.

If anyone is interested in reading the papers, please contact the authors.

used clothes
Monday, February 6, 2023

New research could divert a billion pounds of clothes and other fabric items from landfills

Canadians trash about a billion pounds—nearly 500 million kilograms—of fashion and home items made of fabric each year, but a new grading system could help divert most of it from landfills.    

In the first study of its kind to determine the quantity and quality of textile waste in Canada, researchers from the University of Waterloo and Seneca College developed the new method to evaluate an item’s quality from A to F and whether it can be resold, recycled or tossed. In testing this method, they found that more than half of textile waste in Canada could be reused and almost a quarter could be recycled. 

“Fashion consumption is at an unparalleled high,” said Olaf Weber, University Research Chair and professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development at Waterloo. “Consumers buy, use and dispose of new garments, which end up in the landfill, and less than one per cent of the materials are recycled. This new method is an important step to curbing our waste.”   

Canada doesn’t have a standardized process for sorting textiles. The researchers used a broader definition of textile waste by recognizing accessories, shoes and soft toys, in addition to clothing and home textiles. They also used a team of Waterloo and Seneca students and professionals from the fashion industry to sort the materials to ensure consistency in grading and proper evaluation of the item’s condition. A pair of ripped and stained jeans might receive a D grade and be flagged for repair before being donated and resold.

Overall, this new comprehensive assessment delivers more data and insights into waste management and prevention. The study determined that items graded A to D made up more than half of our current waste stream, so could be resold or reused. This finding emphasizes that there are many opportunities to divert textile waste in Canada, yielding massive benefits.  

“Reducing our waste is a crucial step to addressing climate change,” said Weber, co-author of the paper. “Avoiding the textile waste assessed in our study could conserve resources and divert a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions — in just one year the equivalent of driving 310,000 cars, plus supplying energy to 218,000 Canadian homes and filling 35,000 Olympic pools of water.” 

Textile recycling in Canada is still in its infancy and so more investigation into its feasibility in some communities is necessary.  

“The tremendous benefits for the economy and environment make pursuing the method worth the effort,” said Weber.  

The study,  Textile waste in Ontario, Canada: Opportunities for reuse and recycling, appears in the Journal of Resources, Conservation and Recycling.

Group at the Advancing Law & Governance conference
Tuesday, December 4, 2018

SEED faculty & graduates host international expert events and Climate Law and Governance 2018 Symposium

During the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on 7 December 2018 in Katowice, Poland, Prof Barbara Mikolajczyk of the University of Silesia and University of Waterloo SEED Professor Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, chaired the international law symposium Advancing Law & Governance Contributions to Climate Action under the Paris Agreement.