Originally published Apr 24/19 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

Earth Day is celebrated in 192 countries to inspire action to protect the life support systems of the Earth.

The first Earth Day was celebrated in the US on April 22, 1970.

 At that time, untreated waste was dumped on the land, in the water or released into the air, whatever was most convenient.  Air pollution was accepted as the ‘smell of money’.

A few voices raised concerns about the damage to the environment but they were largely ignored.

This was also the time of social protest of the Vietnam War and social inequality.
Gaylord Nelson, a Democratic Senator was inspired to action after seeing the results of an oil spill in California. He decided to use the energy of the protesters to call for action on environmental damage.  

He persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman to join him for a day of public education and call to action. They hired Denis Hayes to promote the event. April 22 was chosen as it was between spring break and final exams for university students.

Earth Day 1970 is described as a rare working together of Republicans and Democrats and people from all walks of life: rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders.

By the end of 1970 the American government passed the Clean Air, Clean Water Act , the Endangered Species Act and established the Environmental Protection Agency.

“It was a gamble,” Gaylord recalled, “but it worked.”

Earth Day became a worldwide event in 1990. The focus has changed over the years. Recycling was important in the 1990’s. Climate change is the main concern since the early 2000’s.
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Earth Day will be 50 years old in 2020.  

Originally published Apr 17/19 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

I became familiar with the term nesting when training to become an Early Childhood Educator. Learning how to nest items is one of the basic skills young children learn.

An example of children’s nesting toys are boxes or barrels that come in graduated sizes so the small ones fit inside the bigger ones. The challenge is to get them in the right order so they all fit inside the biggest one.

Another good example is the Russian doll that opens to reveal several more dolls inside.

A grown-up example would be measuring cups or serving bowls that nest inside each other. They all stay together and take up less space in the cupboard. I am sure there are many more examples.

What does nesting have to do with recycling?

It actually causes problems.

We bale recyclables and ship them to Winnipeg where they are separated from a moving conveyor belt. The process of baling often forces one kind of material to nest inside another making it very difficult to separate them for recycling.

 It is hard to avoid but we do what we can to help out by making sure Items aren’t nested before we bale them. 

Often things arrive at the Centre nested. Some of the nested items we frequently see are cans inside tissue boxes, aluminum cans inside tin cans, plastics and jars inside cereal boxes.

Another problem we see is garbage nested inside of boxes.

Nesting the same materials is fine. An example is flattened boxboard boxes like cereal boxes, inside one boxboard box or smaller tin cans inside of larger one. 

Flattening boxes, large pop bottles and milk containers will save space in the recycling bag.

​Originally published Apr 10/19 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

Like every employer, safety for the public and my employees is a very important for me.

So it is concerning when I arrive at the Centre and there are a variety of materials including plastic bags, fliers or pieces of cardboard lying on the stairs. This creates significant chances of slipping and falling particularly if someone is carrying something and doesn’t see it.

I mentioned it to one of the team the other day. She commented she had cleaned it up less than 5 minutes ago.

It was a windy day. There were open boxes and loose materials on the dock that had blown onto the steps.

Loose materials at the Centre should be placed in the blue bins along the side of the trailer to avoid this problem.

Loose materials also create a big problem in the trailer parked between Walmart and Canadian Tire. The big doors are opened to empty it.  Loose items fall out creating a huge mess on the ground. Some inevitably blows around and must be picked up.

Some of this problem is created by people climbing in the trailer and breaking open bags. We assume they are looking to make some money from empty beer containers.

The other cause is open bags or boxes or materials being dumped loose into the trailer.  

It takes three or four people about 45 minutes to empty the trailer at the Centre. By comparison, the trailer from Denare Beach that picks up closed bags and boxes from homes and cardboard at the landfill takes about twenty minutes to unload with very little mess.
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New signs have been placed on the trailer in an effort to reduce the problem.  

Originally published April 3/19 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

April is always a busy month at the Recycling Centre.

The recyclables arriving at the Centre increases in the spring as many people bring all the bags they filled over the winter.

Other activities keep us busy.

Recycling and garbage bins are provided for the Flinty Fishing Derby. A few of our staff enjoy the event.

Two groups of children will tour the Centre this month. The children’s reactions and questions are always interesting. I usually learn something I can use for promoting recycling.

Two Annual General Meetings (AGMs) take place in April.

The Manitoba Association of Regional Recyclers (MARR) will meet in Brandon April 24. The usual business of reporting on the activities and financial status of the Organization and the election of Board members takes place in the morning. After a guest speaker at lunch, there will be a tour of the recycling and waste diversion operations at the Eastview Landfill.

I attend these meetings because I am a Board member. One or two of our Board members usually join me. The tours are a very interesting part of the day.

The AGM for the Flin Flon & District Environment Council, Inc. which runs the Recycling Centre will be Monday April 29, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. at Flin Flon City Council Chambers. There is a presentation and awards in the first half of the meeting. The business of reviewing financial statements and electing Board members takes place after the snack break.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Five dollar memberships are available at the meeting.

The Leisure Show at the Sportex is sandwiched in between these meetings. It’s always great opportunity to meet people and provide information about recycling. 

April total – 42,269 kg
       
        Aluminum – 386 kg
        Commingled* - 11,382 kg
        Office Paper – 2,259 kg
        Cardboard – 24,643 kg
        Glass – 3,599 kg
      
Total for 2019 –  162,423 kg
Total for 2018 – 162,863 kg
Difference – -431 kg


Batteries – 37 kg

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


Comments – April 2018 was a record setting month at 49 tonnes, so this year April we fell behind. I expect that negative number will soon disappear. 

I am also fairly certain that the drop in commingle tonnage is mostly the result of lighter weight materials being baled.