September 2023

[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.