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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. |