Originally published December 15, 2021    The Reminder, Flin Flon, Mb. 

December is a month for celebrating. In addition to Christmas day, there is a week of celebration of Hannukah and Kwanza.
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The holiday festivities and gift giving create a lot of leftover materials making it the busiest time of the year at the Recycling Centre as many of these items can be recycled.
 
Many cannot.
 
Recyclable items include plastic, boxboard (light cardboard) and other paper types of packaging materials, printed paper materials including Christmas cards without foil or non-paper decorations, Christmas lights, computers and anything attached to them, televisions, sound systems, telephones, microwaves, household batteries, paint and fluorescent bulbs.
 
Things that are not recyclable include gift wrap, bows, Christmas decorations, #6 plastic items, Styrofoam, plastic bags and wrap, small kitchen appliances and disposable plates, utensils and coffee cups.
 
A complete list of recyclable and non-recyclable items is available in the recycling flier mailed out earlier this year. The flier is available at the Recycling Centre as well.
 
The website has pictures of what is recyclable and what is not at www.flinflonrecycling.org.
 
If you are unsure, please call the Centre at 204 687-6169.  We love answering questions.
 
Remember the three R’s this holiday season: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
 
Reduce by making a donation to a charity in honour of that special someone.
 
Reuse gift bags and wash dishes instead of using disposables. Regift items you no longer use.
 
As we enter another year, we need to move towards a circular economy that recovers, reuses and recycles as much as possible instead of the current linear one of take, make, waste.
 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone from the Flin Flon Recycling Centre. Be kind to each other and to Mother Earth.

Originally published December 1, 2021   The Reminder, Flin Flon, Mb. 

​November 3, the second day of the annual MARR forum in Winnipeg was full of information.

The theme of the conference was the circular economy. After video greetings from the minister of Conservation and Climate Sarah Guillemard, the forum moderator described how the circular economy is moving away from the current straight-line economy of ‘make, use, throw away’, to one where recovering, reusing, and recycling things will be the priority.  

Presenters from the government of Manitoba brought information about their current review of waste management and recycling programs in Manitoba to the whole group before two smaller group sessions in the morning.

There were two choices for each time slot for breakout sessions.

The new fully automated recycling sorting facility operated by GFL in Winnipeg gave a virtual tour.

Information about the operation of the RM of Rockwood transfer station and the SWAMP regional waste management site that is shared by Winkler, Morden and the RM of Stanley was available in another session.

Other presentations focused on cardboard recycling and the mattress recycling program at Mother Earth.

The afternoon began with information from Environment and Climate Change Canada about their plans for single use plastics ban and from a plastics recycling plant in Ontario operated by EFS Plastics.

The smaller sessions were focused on hauling recyclables including batteries, electronics, hazardous waste out of winter road communities, composting, its value and how it works, and recycling large appliances including those with refrigerant.

There were many interesting bits of information that will be shared in the next column.
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Much of this information will be presented again as webinars on December 7 and 14 for anyone who is interested. Contact the Recycling Centre for more information. 

Originally published November 17, 2021   The Reminder, Flin Flon, Mb. 

Every fall the Manitoba Association of Regional Recyclers holds a forum and tours about waste diversion and recycling. It was five webinars in 2020.

This year’s forum was in person with a focus on the circular economy.

It began with an afternoon tour on November 2.  

The bus took us to the old Summit Road landfill. It was opened in the 1940’s and closed in the early 2000’s. It is flat without much cover causing drainage and leachate problems. The City of Winnipeg has a ten-year project fabricating soil to cover it.  

The soil is created by making two windrows of wood ships like the outside of a taco. Biosolids from the sewage treatment plant are placed in the middle. Sand recovered from street sweeping covers it up. This sits for 6 – 12 months and then is spread back and forth with a bulldozer to create a layer of soil.

The area is being built up 12 inches; 6 inches at a time. A cover crop is planted after the first six inches. When it is finished, native prairie grasses and plants are planted.

This layer provides better cover that reduces the amount of water entering the landfill which produces toxic leachate.

The second stop was Brady landfill. There are stations at the entrance for all the recyclable items and compostable yard waste. The only fee is a charge for mattresses. Anything that is left (which usually isn’t very much) goes to the landfill for a $20.00 minimum tipping fee.

We also saw the compost area and the methane burner that reduces the greenhouse gases escaping the landfill.
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It is great to see how other communities are reducing waste.

Originally published November 3, 2021  The Reminder, Flin Flon, Mb. 

This subject has addressed in past years but this is not a ‘recycled’ column.

Inspiration comes from two incidents in the past week.

I received a call from a concerned citizen asking who enforced environment laws. He walks his dog at the end of Tweedsmuir Street and was upset by the mess. He mentioned there is usually some garbage but he had come across a much larger mess on his last visit.

I referred him to the City of Flin Flon Bylaw officer as it is in City limits. Manitoba Conservation and Climate is the place to call outside of City limits.

When I was leaving work, I observed a truck and trailer with brush enter the lot across the street. The driver stopped at the back end of the lot and unloaded the brush from his trailer.

This is illegal dumping. It happens in many places around our community.

It is very hard to get sufficient evidence to charge and fine these polluters.

All of this reminded me of a customer who dropped off recycling and wanted to leave a screen tent he no longer wanted. We told him we don’t take them. He didn’t want to go to the landfill just for that.

He is not alone. Others that we don’t see leave a variety of non-recyclable items.  Yesterday it was two vacuum cleaners.

These things belong in the landfill.  The tipping fee of $10.00 is a small price to pay to keep our community clean and wild areas wild.
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On a positive note, we receive many calls for information about where the best ‘away’ place is for a variety of items. These people want to do the right thing. 

        Aluminum – 506 kg
        Commingled* - 10,245 kg
        Office Paper – 3,531 kg
        Cardboard – 26,455 kg
        Glass – 4,506 kg
        

Total for 2021 – 564,357 kg
Total for 2020 – 538,082 kg
Difference – +26,275 kg

 
Batteries – 345 kg - a pallet of 15 boxes. 
         Note: beginning in 2022, we will be shipping a pallet of boxes about twice a year.

* Co-mingled is unsorted materials sent to Winnipeg for sorting

Comments – 2021 was another successful year for our recycling program. It was a bit unusual as 20 tonnes of the extra 26 recycled this year was office paper, most of it shredded.  
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It is encouraging that we had 4 tonnes more of commingled materials. This weight has been decreasing the past few years as there is less newspaper and packaging has gotten lighter. These factors haven't changed so this indicates more people are recycling. We have been much busier this year with these materials. 

Other increases in materials were 606 kg more aluminum cans and 2.3 tonnes of cardboard. Glass was almost a tonne less than last year.