By Cheryl Jahn

Green Week

UNBC wraps another successful Green Week

Feb 6, 2026 | 3:21 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – As the expression goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. And as a contingent of UNBC students has learned this week, we generate a lot of trash.

“A lot of that is from very single-use things. Things that are not built to last,” explains Olivia Schneider with Students for a Green University. “And that goes to the landfill. And a lot of the problem is a lot of that stuff also gets shipped overseas. So we don’t necessarily see what is actually happening. It’s not that it goes out of our lives. We don’t think about it again. But that does not mean that it’s not still around.”

And with that in mind, students took to places like the City’s wastewater treatment facility, as well as Cascades Recovery and the landfill to get an idea of what kind of waste we generate, how much of it exists and what we do with it.

“It’s something you don’t think about often,” says Event Coordinator, Kyle Ross. “It’s so convenient these days. You flush a toilet, you run your sink, wash your hands, you throw your recycling out in the blue bin, you throw your garbage out. Where does it go? It’s not something that you think about.”

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For year’s UNBC has carried the title of Canada’s Green University with pride. And it was often celebrated. But Olivia Schneider cautions against becoming complacent.

“There are certainly a lot of projects, a lot of passion behind what is happening,” says Schneider. “But, as a student, sometimes the fear is that the university achieved that and then held on to that without continuing to move forward with it.”

And with that in mind, coupled with the notion of waste as a resources, these keen students have their work cut out for them.