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As a recycling community, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mo Sihota. As Minister of the Environment in the mid 90's, his fight (against the huge lobby of international businesses) for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) moved recycling in BC from a haphazard patchwork of Provincial (Litter Act) and Municipal (reducing the materials going into shrinking landfills) efforts into a Recycling powerhouse which is the envy of most of the world. The government of the time was savvy enough to give the Business community what they wanted - control over the process - while maintaining regulatory oversight. In other words, the Government said, "here is what you need to do - you figure out the most efficient way to do it". So despite fierce opposition, businesses worked with the government to find the most efficient ways to recycle.
An unexpected bonus to this partnership is that some in the business community realized that it was only a matter of time before they would be facing regulations to recycle their products so they started to figure out ways to recycle before they were regulated. That is what has happened with the producers of Asphalt Shingles. 84% of homes in North America have asphalt shingles resulting in 16.5 million tons of shingles entering the landfill every year. The companies producing asphalt shingles are putting millions of dollars into recycling solutions for their product (spurred on by Municipalities like the CRD who have banned shingles from their landfills). They have now figured out how to separate the three components of the shingles so that they can reuse all three. 50% of the shingle is sand, 25% is asphalt, and 25% is fiber (paper or more recently fiberglass). Three plants in Canada (Delta, Calgary and Hamilton) will be diverting 50% of Asphalt Shingles by 2035. The sand will be used in road building or for more shingles. The fiberglass will be used in concrete and flat roofing and the asphalt will be used for shingles and flat roofing. Plus recycling will result in an estimated 60% saving in greenhouse gasses compared to making the Asphalt Shingles from raw materials. All in all a very good result thanks to EPR pressure on companies to recycle. A heads up about a terrific event being held at the depot in conjunction with Tire Stewardship BC on May 23 and 24 at the Depot. There will be a free collection of old tires and tires with rims for all Mayne Islanders. The Depot will be open on May 23 from noon to 3pm and on May 24 from 10am to 4pm to collect them. Also, don't forget about the Beach Cleanup on April 27 at 10:30am sponsored by MI Nature Conservancy and supported by the MI Recycling Depot. And the busy summer season is fast approaching. The Depot will be open an extra day - Fridays from 10am to 2pm - for July and August, to help ease the congestion. I always find waste disposal in other countries fascinating. Usually the garbage along the highway gives you a lot of information on how serious the country is about garbage. And of course one shouldn’t generalize - a province or municipality can buck a national trend. Currently I’m in Turkey and have made several observations.
The first thing I saw was a huge truck in a public square hauling up a fixed garbage can. Under it was a giant receptacle (about 15’ x 10’ x 10’) that was hoisted and swung over an awaiting truck where the bottom opened and a ton of mixed waste was dropped. So I started to look around for any signs of recycling. There were none because it seems Turkey doesn’t have a national recycling program. There was an occasional stop that had waste sorted but apparently that is private. The stats are that they recycled 6% of plastic. Unfortunately 5% of that was imported waste and only 1% was local. But no; no plastic, no paper, no metal and no drink container recycling (made worse by the fact everyone drinks water from plastic bottles - I’ve used more plastic water bottles in the last two weeks than I have in the last two years at home ). Consequently, the ditches, river banks and fields all seem to be covered with assorted plastic. Fill delivered to building sites is full of trash. There is a plan to increase recycling in Turkey but it seems stalled. My mind automatically goes to how this can happen. You could blame low prices for recycled materials - cheaper to make new than recycle old (this explains why private recycling is so rare in Turkey). You could blame governments for not acting (fair, but my observation is that governments only act when there is a problem - municipalities get interested in recycling and green waste management when the landfill is getting full and it would be costly or impossible to expand because of NIMBY syndrome). You could blame industry but they have a responsibility to their shareholders not to the environment. You could even say it is too expensive so why bother. But the real problem is that we have a history of paying only a portion of the cost for our consumer goods. We pay for the production and distribution. Disposal has always been cheap or free so we have not worried about that. Now that disposal is getting more expensive and end of life consumer goods are threatening to drown us, we begin to act. BC and now the rest of Canada is moving towards the Producer Pays system of Stewardship programs. Of course you and I pay for it in the cost of goods, but it is nice to know that there is an end of life plan for consumer goods that is responsible. Of course we have to show off our success so that the bulk of North America and other Nations of the world join us. That may be the larger problem! -Kim Harris So, we have been back from the warmer climes of Costa Rica for about 6 weeks now and yet I am still wondering. Part of this wondering came back to me after the first few shifts back at the depot. As I helped clientele with their recycling we chatted about a variety of things. No world problems were solved in these discussions but I got to know some more people on our Island and some of them were able to put a name to a face (the guy writing these articles). As one car left and the next took its place I felt that the exiting islander truly appreciated the assistance with his/her recycling materials.
There have been so many new faces at the depot this past year. I wonder how they all managed to show up on Mayne Island without me noticing. My wife and friends have always been astounded at how many people I know on the island. Me, I am amazed at how many I do not know. And now my wondering took me to the next level. What if some (many I would hope) of the newcomers volunteered at the depot for a 2 hour shift every other week. They would have the opportunity to learn where everything goes with their own recycling and then to pass on this knowledge to the other patrons of the depot. They would have the opportunity to meet more people on the Island and learn more about Island life. (Of course I am supposing that this might be something that everyone wants to do – my introverted friends have popped their heads out of their insular refuge to assure me not everyone wants this). If you do want to become a part of the Recycling Team, please get in touch with Kathy Kaiser of the M.I.R.S. board to get a spot. By the time you are reading this article the Conservancy and M.I.R.S. will have completed the beach cleanup. A great shout out to Lisa Siddons for organizing the clean up teams and the sorting at the depot. We all hope to have cleaner beaches after the beachcombing and hope that there might be even less material collected this year than last year – maybe a sign of a growing consciousness of keeping our environment cleaner. Another reminder: the Mayne Island Recycling Society AGM is to be held on June 13 at 5:00 pm at the Adachi Pavilion. This is a great opportunity for newcomers and old timers alike to come to the AGM and see if this is an organization that you might like to become a part of. The time commitment is not onerous and the concept of a cleaner island (province, country, planet) is never a bad idea. See many of you at the depot – hopefully with your sorted recyclables in their totes/boxes. Want to volunteer? Just ask Grant, Eric or Rick and they will point you in the right direction. - Richard Jarco It feels like I have not written an article for the Mayneliner from M.I.R.S. for far more than 3 months. It was a pleasant break to have input from other board members who, in all likelihood, look at recycling from differing perspectives than myself. And this got me wondering.
Wondering is a wonderful thing. It is something I used when I was teaching adults working towards their grade 12 degree after their having been out of school for quite a few years. I encouraged them to wonder aloud about why an author might have mentioned something in his/her writing. And now here I am wondering. I wonder about the plethora of recycled materials as mentioned in Sean’s article in last months’ Mayneliner. There was a huge amount of varying product – literally tons – that was brought in to the depot and sent out to various other recycling facilities. How much material was not brought in to the depot but simply garbaged? Are we all truly committed to cleaning up our community, our country , our planet – or do we let our concerns lapse depending on the amount of time it might take to recycle completely. I know I am guilty of chucking something that is just too gross to wash or clean- maybe rationalizing that I should not waste water. I am writing this article from Costa Rica where the beaches are generally very pristine. But we just left an area where the beaches were somewhat neglected. Intent was there – someone had taken large garbage bags to the beach, gathered many plastic pieces of flotsam and filled the bags. But the bags were simply left there above the high tide line and the wildlife had rummaged through them, dispersing the plastic along the beach. I wonder what the plan, if any, was to get these bags off the beach? (Note to self and community about beach cleanup in April). I wonder about all of the changes that have taken place over the years at the depot. I started volunteering there 13 years ago and have seen many changes. From having to separate #3 plastic from #7 plastic to a catch all. From putting your stuff from your blue bin into the blue bins at the depot and then having us dump them into the balers to the large white totes. Have these changes encouraged the community to recycle more? I wonder about the many monthly articles that have been written over the years in the Mayneliner. Have these articles inspired you to be better recyclers (this means reducing, reusing, recycling and rethinking)? I wonder about those 100,000 beer and liquor containers that have come through the depot in the past year. How many of those are mine? (I feel I might go to Recycling Heaven since I now use a Kegerator for my Mayne Island Brewery beers). I wonder if I have been in the sun too long which has made me wonder so much. - Richard Jarco What happens after you drop off your recycling at the depot? FAQ.
After you put your yoghurt container in the plastic tote at the Depot - assisted by our lovely and knowledgeable staff and volunteers - where does your recycling go? Most of the collected materials are baled by the staff and our Depot Manager, Grant, hauls it to a sorting plant in Victoria. From there it is shipped to processing plants to prepare it for its next incarnation. Provincial guide lines encourage Recycle BC to process as much as possible as close to the source as possible. 75% of what you put in the totes is processed in the Pacific Northwest (a vast improvement since the program started in 2014 when just 33% was processed locally). The majority of what is left is processed in North America with a small portion shipped off shore (mostly tetra packs and styrofoam). 98% of what you put in totes is recycled. That’s not bad. But how much of what is produced gets recycled (recovery rate)? That depends on the material. Virtually all of the glass is collected. 95% of paper products are collected, 73% of metal, 60% of rigid plastic and 23% of flexible plastic. In their 4 year plan, Recycle BC sets a goal for recovery. The government then proposes improvements for the next year (ie. they are expected to collect 73% of rigid plastic by 2025 - up from 60% in 2022. What does the container you brought back to the depot get made into? We are lucky in BC to have one of the world leaders in plastic recycling - Merlin Plastics - in New Westminster. They sort, pelletize and mix pellets into the proportions a particular client wants. Recycled plastics are in new containers, plant pots, yoga mats, clothing, toys and building materials. Similarly, glass is recycled into other glass containers, fibreglass, construction materials and sand blasting materials. Metals are turned into sheet metal and then any product that would be made from new metal. Your recycled paper is turned into paper towels, toilet paper, newspapers, egg cartons, grocery bags and greeting cards. Government regulations about including recycled materials in everyday products could be a huge boon to recovering the costs for recycling. Who pays for recycling in BC? Recycling is not cheap. The program we are a part of pays $66 per household per year for recycling the 40.5kg produced per household. In BC we have what is called “Extended Producer Responsibility”. This means that the companies that sell the materials are responsible for the cost of recycling. They are charged per kg for each material they sell. For example, styrofoam costs the seller $2.82/kg. Paper for magazines costs $0.25/kg. These producer fees are adjusted yearly to account for changes in the costs of the recycling. The total cost of the recycling program in BC is $135 million. (Because we are a small community and lack the efficiencies of scale, the MI Recycling Depot also receives funding from the CRD outside the Recycle BC program.) - Kim Harris 100,000 Beers, Super Sacks, and More!
If you like numbers and recycling this column is for you: Mayne Island recycling totals for 2023! The Mayne Island Recycling Society (MIRS) closely tracks the volume of common materials collected at the depot. We say volume because GFL Environmental, the business that picks up our non-deposit materials, tallies materials by bale or “super sack” (those white sacks you see at the depot) rather than by weight. Wherever possible we compact materials into bales in order to minimize transportation costs. Deposits are different. We estimate the number of uncrushed beer cans, pop cans, tetra packs, etc. that fit into a super sack. In 2023, MIRS shipped 175 bales of mixed cardboard and paper, 88 bales of mixed containers (plastics and metal), and 46 bales of flexible plastics (bags), 32 super sacks of glass bottles and jars, 42 large bags of foam packaging, and 18 super sacks of coloured foam packaging. That’s a lot of material recycled in our small community! But what about deposits you ask. Did Mayne Island really consume 100,000 beers in 2023? The answer is yes. In total, the depot received an estimated 92,160 beer cans and 10,560 beer bottles, for a total of 102,720 empty beer vessels. Keep in mind this includes cider cans and bottles, and is an underestimate as it does not account for cans and bottles returned by businesses and individuals to off island facilities. The total estimated number of other deposits received at the depot in 2023 are shown in the list below. Estimated Total in 2023 Wine and hard liquor (glass): 38,400 Non-alcoholic bottles: 7,760 Pop cans: 92,160 Plastic drink containers: 34,000 Drink boxes under 500 ml: 2,880 Drink boxes over 1L: 6,400 Gable top bottles under 1L: 800 Gable top bottles over 1L: 3,600 Plastic liquor bottles: 400 You can learn more about where your recycling goes on our website under “What Happens to the Items We Recycle”. Remember, wherever possible, please seek out products with less packaging and please drink responsibly. Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner (or some form of Tofu substitute for our Vegan friends). After many hours of careful deliberation, the MI Recycling Society has arrived at a winner and two runners-up for the Rethinking contest. In truth, hours were not the measurement of how long the process took - glasses of wine or drams of single malt made the process zoom by (it also got volunteers coming out of the proverbial woodwork). Thanks to all of those people who completed a ballot in the Rethinking contest and congratulations to the winners.
There were some very interesting suggestions, some of which would have reshaped our Mayne Island landscape considerably to incorporate factories to reprocess many of the products we already collect as well as a plethora of products not as yet perceived as recyclable. These suggestions will likely be passed on to the larger recycling entities on the mainland or Vancouver Island. Some suggestions involved contests to create artistic displays of what can be done with recyclables. The magnitude of some of these suggestions was immense but one of our runners-up brought the concept to a more manageable level involving local artists, artisans and students (Robin Poncia - 1st runner up). The second runner-up of the Rethinking contest, with a very simplistic suggestion that may make everyone happier, asked to have a hand sanitizer or wash station available so that you can clean up after sorting through your recyclables. I giggled a bit at this one as I could see the need for a laundromat for some of our patrons who still fill a big green garbage bag with their slimy, sticky recyclables and are often forced to virtually crawl into the bag to get at that last juice box that has stuck to the bottom of the bag. We can only encourage you to use the blue bins or at least cardboard boxes to sort your recyclables - it is just so much easier (and eliminates the need for a laundromat) (S. Fraser - 2nd runner up). And the winner of the contest, Lauren Underhill, offered up a number of different suggestions based on her recent involvement as a volunteer at the Depot. It is always appreciated when a fresh set of eyes sees things that might improve the running of the Depot for both the workers and the patrons. Something as simple as putting our small pieces of paper products into a larger paper bag, cereal box or envelope would make the life of the person at the Depot responsible for loading the baler so much easier. She also suggested a poster showing the different categories to encourage pre-sorting which might end up on the fridge or next to recycling bins. We have this (our brochure), but her suggestion has encouraged us to distribute these brochures more diligently (Lauren Underhill - Winner). Reminder: Depot is open Wednesdays 10 am - 2 pm, Businesses 2 - 3 pm; and Saturdays 10 am - 4 pm. Contest is over but keep rethinking. Well, here we are – summer is behind us and the cooler, hopefully wetter, months of autumn are ahead. As you will already have noticed if you showed up at the depot on Wednesday, we are closed on Wednesdays for the fall, winter and spring. Many people have voiced their appreciation of the depot being open for that one extra day to bring in your recycling. We will be meeting as a board at the end of September to evaluate the Wednesday opening. I suspect it will be reinstated next summer. But some of the comments made to depot staff indicated that Wednesday/Saturday openings as opposed to the current Friday/Saturday openings might be a better pattern (prior to Covid, the depot was open Wed/Sat – some new residents might not know this). I am sure that this will be a topic for discussion at the board meeting so if you have any thoughts on this, please express these ideas to the depot staff or by email to [email protected] so we have an idea of how you, our patrons, might like to see the depot become more efficient.
And the Rethinking contest has come to a close. We have some very good ideas to consider and will be doing so at the board meeting as well. Winners will be announced and contacted soon. It was very interesting to get some informal thoughts from depot patrons as the contest was explained. A common theme was that many of the people, most who are retired, found thinking to be quite painful, and Rethinking would be downright excruciating. These responses, I am quite sure, were meant to be a jocular response to a simple task (I could see myself responding in a like manner if I was the one being asked to Rethink a concept). That being said, some of the responses that were actually written and submitted blew me away. Some among us had thoughts that could, and maybe should, take recycling to the next level. I was fortunate enough to have attended the Conservancy fundraiser where Dr. David Suzuki spoke very eloquently about the state of the world in terms of the direction the human race is taking. There were many brilliant points made but the one that stuck with me the most was his observations that we acquire so much ‘stuff’ that we obviously feel we need when we buy it, but ultimately don’t really need so it is discarded. Guilty as charged – my wife would most certainly attest to this. How do we curb our buying patterns? Even Dr. Suzuki did not have the answer to this conundrum but I felt that all in the room agreed that something must be done. And in closing – SORT, SORT, SORT. Throughout the summer it became very obvious that the sorters amongst us were in and out of the depot in no time flat; the ‘jam-it-all-into-a-garbage-bag’ folks, not so much. See you at the depot. - Richard Jarco [lightly edited]
We all knew that day had to come sometime - but so soon? Ol' Betsy, our beloved forklift, coughed her last cough and needed to be replaced. She had served us well for some 20 years (nobody really knows) and has been replaced with a shiny new (new to us) Toyota. Blue and orange and with brakes that work, she will represent us well and much more safely than Betsy. Hefting those bales of cardboard and recycled pop/beer cans etc., she will bring many smiles to Grant and Rick. Ask them to toot her horn for you on your next visit - it is breathtaking. Speaking of our new equipment, at our last Board meeting a recycling magazine was being circulated amongst our group. I decided to take the magazine home for some bedtime reading and was fascinated by its contents (remember, I fascinate easily). Articles about the challenges that many businesses face - cost recovery, employees being so much harder to hold onto or find in the first pace, continual changes in packaging from a producer's perspective, being able to adapt to how to deal with demanding materials, and the behemoth recycling and sorting machines that can speed things up 50%. I really had no idea of the complexities involved in trying to get recycled material sorted and shipped to those who can reprocess it into useful products once more. What are some of these products that we simply can't live without, you ask? Last year I had the opportunity to visit a world-famous horse ranch in Kentucky, Claiborne Farms (Secretariat was bred, born and buried there). The expanse of walkways between barns and paddocks was lined with interlocking brick pathways. But not your concrete bricks we might have on our driveways. These bricks were made from recycled rubber. The surface was solid enough for man or beast (some beasts worth millions) to tread upon, but cushioned enough for the tender hooves of these expensive stallions (there were mares there but the $ is in stud services). I thought about how many tires were reutilized to produce the tens of thousands of rubber bricks. Could these bricks be used on our city sidewalks, our driveways, curbs etc.? We regularly hear about how the production of cement is a huge factor in the climate change world - could this be a start of a solution? And here I am again - Rethinking. I hope you are too. The Mayne Island Recycling Depot is just wrapping up its Rethinking Contest. I have tried to hand out as many ballots as I could during my shifts at the Depot. We have had many ballots returned but I have purposely not read any of them as yet. This will happen on judgement day (not THE Judgement Day) when I will ask some of the Board members to sit down with me to determine our winners. These winners will be acknowledged in next month's MayneLiner. A reminder - the Depot will no longer be open on Wednesdays starting in September. This was a trial to determine its effectiveness and a decision for years to come will be made by the board. The Mayne Island Recycling Society (MIRS) "Rethinking" contest will be commencing on July 5, our first Wednesday that the Depot will be open for the summer. To enter the contest, just pick up one of the official entry ballots at the Depot. Complete the ballot with an idea that rethinks the concept of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and bring the ballot back to the Depot on your next recycling visit. Deadline for entries will be Wednesday, August 2. Ballots will be read through by a select group of the Recycling Board and the winner will be announced in the September MayneLiner.
Our Wednesday openings will commence on July 5th, the first Wednesday of the month. Gates will be open from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm. With these new hours the Depot is looking for more volunteers to help with traffic control and sorting. Having personally volunteered at the Depot for the past 13 years, I can attest to how quickly the hours fly by and the gratitude expressed by the persons you help to unload their bins. Bins - a usual means of sorting one's recycling, but a novel concept to some. The Depot used to sell blue bins for $5 but I think you might have to fork out $10+ at Canadian Tire or other hardware stores for a bin, if you can find them. But what about cardboard boxes? They are readily available at the Trading Post or Tru Value and the stores are happy to get rid of them as opposed to having to package them off as their own recycling. And the rewards you will experience will be amazing. Some, only a few, but still some come in to the Depot with all their recycling in a big, green, odoriferous and more often sticky bag. If this is you, I would like to offer you a means of keeping your sleeves clean while speeding up your visit to the Depot. Ask for a couple of bins and dump all of the recycling into the bins. This allows you to see what you are grabbing and to more efficiently distribute your goodies into the correct white totes. Our MIRS AGM was held June 8th. This AGM covered all things AGM's are meant to cover but managed to do so in only 34 minutes. Not that the brevity of a meeting is a measure of success but when wine, beer and munchies are involved, brevity is cherished. Thanks to Don Eadie for chairing the Board this past year (and the brief meeting). We did see some new faces and hopefully acquired some new volunteers for the Depot and the Board. New ideas and inspired energy are always welcome. We look forward to seeing you at the Depot, especially on Wednesdays, throughout the summer and hope to get some great Rethinking ideas for us to consider in our future planning. |