Originally published  Mar 18/15  The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

Composting is form of recycling that can be completed in our community. It takes care of 30-40% of waste and the new material can be put to good use.  

Plant waste such as vegetable peels, grass clippings, leaves, garden waste, and wood chips can be composted. The result is a soil fertilizer that does more than chemicals.

Compost adds a wide variety of nutrients and micro-organisms to soil. It doesn’t wash away into rivers and streams and helps keep the soil moist.

A compost pile can be created in your back yard with or without a bin. Municipalities and private businesses can compost on a much bigger scale.

The process will take a few months to a year or more, depending on how much attention it receives and how much ‘greens’ and ‘browns’ are in the mix.

Greens are vegetable and fruit scraps (fresh, cooked, or canned), coffee grounds/filters, tea leaves/bags, garden waste, fresh weeds without seeds, fresh grass clippings which are rich in nitrogen.

Browns are dry leaves, straw, dry hay, sawdust, woodchips from untreated wood, twigs, dried grass clippings, dried weeds without seeds, shredded paper napkins, tissue paper which are rich in carbon.

Eggshells, plain rice and pasta, bread, hair, wool, cotton can also be composted. 

A layer of black dirt will get the compost started. Mixing in browns and keeping it moist but not too wet will keep it from smelling.

The compost will work faster if it is stirred regularly which can be weekly to every month.

Meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, oily foods, bones, pet waste, weeds with mature seeds, plants infected with disease, plastic/petroleum products, metals, synthetic materials cannot be composted.

More information is available at http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/composting-basics-and-getting-started/. 

In 2014:
  - 65% of materials baled was sold: corrugated cardboard, newsprint and office paper
  - 7% was glass used locally
  - 28% was shipped to Winnipeg for sorting

  - total sale of recyclables was $18,417. 00.  35% of that was beer returns
  - sorting costs were $4,404.00.

Revenue sources for 2014

Flin Flon & Creighton                           27%
Building Rental                                          18%
Business and Curbside fees               16%
Stewardship Program subsidy        14%
Landfill contract subsidy                     13%
Sale of Recyclables                                     6%
Miscellaneous                                              4%
Donations/Fundraising                        2%

Originally published Mar 11/15 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

Recycling and Waste reduction: a Discussion Paper is available online at www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/envprograms/recycling/index.html for review and comments from citizens of Manitoba. The deadline is March 20, 2015.

This is not a new concept for the Manitoba government. Since the mid 1990’s it has reduced the amount of waste going to landfills by 15% while the population grew by 14%.

Most of us just think about garbage but the term solid waste is much bigger including construction waste, used oil, electronics, hazardous waste, tires, grass and other yard waste.

Green Manitoba, the branch of government focused on waste reduction has several programs designed to achieve their goal.

Extended producer responsibility is one that in my view has the biggest impact. It requires industries whose products create waste to help take care of it. Examples are used oil, tires, electronics (e-waste), household recyclables, beverage containers and agricultural projects. 

Industries fund producer responsible organizations (PRO’s) which are non-profit. The PRO’s run programs that make it affordable for communities to recycle what is recyclable and dispose of hazardous waste safely.

All of these programs are operating in Flin Flon except Household Hazardous waste.

Support for household recycling from Multi Material Stewardship of Manitoba has been vital to the survival of recycling in our community. The recycling program has been receiving this subsidy since 1995.  

Green Manitoba’s current focus is community composting. This is a program Flin Flon still needs to take advantage of.

 Manitoba still has the third highest rate of waste per person in Canada. The discussion paper sets a new goal of cutting that rate in half by 2020.

More information about these programs is available at www.greenmanitoba.ca.

Originally published  Mar 4/15  The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

I am uncomfortable about the incredible number of plastic bags sent to the landfill from the Recycling Centre.

Some plastic bags are here because people don’t know we do not recycle them.

We do not collect plastic bags for recycling because we have no place to send most of them. Only a few kinds could be sent and the most common bags including grocery bags are not included.

The real conundrum for me is that we are responsible for most of the bags sent to the landfill.

I looked up the word conundrum. It is a difficult problem that cannot really be solved.

Here is the conundrum. Our facility does not have ground level access. We cannot drive into our building to remove loose recyclables for processing.

Other centres have trucks that dump it on the floor. It is moved with a machine to a sort line. The Pas pulls trailers into their building and removes the large containers of recyclables from the trailer with a forklift.

Our building has a loading dock on the front. Creating access at the back of the building would require a considerable amount of blasting very close to the building. Our lot is too narrow to create access at the side. All of this would have a high cost.

So for now, everything arrives contained in something. Most often a plastic bag is used, although boxes are fine.

The only exception is the blue bins at the Centre where people can place loose recyclables.  The bags in these bins are reused as many times as possible.

I rationalize this conundrum by reminding myself that each bag we throw away means  much more has been kept from the landfill. 

Originally published  Feb 25/15  The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

The Red Bag Curbside Recycling program offered in Flin Flon by the Recycling Centre is designed to encourage people to recycle by making it convenient. This service has been offered every other week since 2010.

Many people who recycle find it difficult to keep track of which week is recycling week.  Others find storing recyclables for two weeks takes too much space and is messy.  If they are away recycling week, it is too long between pickups.

The Recycling Centre is changing the program to address these concerns.  The Red Bag curbside service will be available every Wednesday beginning March 4, 2015 for a six month trial period.

This means every Wednesday recycling in a red bag will be picked up from the front curb. Homes do not have to put it out every week but they can.

The bags cost $3.50 which pays for the service. Two more bags or boxes will be picked up with one red bag.

Large cardboard does not need to be bagged. It should be flattened and placed under the bags.

Red bags may be purchased at the Gas Bar, Super K, Pharmasave, Dollar Store, Acklands, Coop, and the Recycling Centre.

This change is being made to encourage more people to recycle. Mess and taking up too much space have been the most common reasons given by those who don’t recycle. The other common one is laziness. Curbside pickup addresses these issues.

Recycling information is available at grocery stores, on the web at www.flinflonrecycling.org, and Flin Flon Recycling Facebook page or by calling 204 687 6169.

Everything we have comes from the earth. If you’re not recycling, you are throwing it all away.