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

The Household Hazardous Waste depot opened at the Flin Flon landfill last summer.

The Recycling Centre worked with the City of Flin Flon to access funding for the depot through Manitoba Product Care, the industry funded organization responsible for supporting the safe disposal of hazardous materials from households.  

Two sea cans were purchased and modified in Winnipeg and installed at the Flin Flon landfill beside the oil collection building.

This is a great improvement for waste management in our community. Previously, hazardous materials were collected one afternoon in September at Centoba Park. 

Hazardous items can now be disposed of properly any time.

People have brought items to the depot, but many people still don’t know about it. 

There will be a special Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) collection day on Saturday, September 15 to try to increase awareness.

Items should be in original containers. Gasoline containers will not be returned.

What is hazardous waste? It is anything that has the danger symbols such as a skull and cross bones (poisonous), flame (flammable), boney hand (corrosive) inside a stop sign or triangle shape.  

Common items include aerosol cans, paints, gasoline, flammable liquids, pesticides, fertilizers, cleaners, disposable propane containers and degreasers, glues, etc.

These items should definitely not go into the landfill or be dumped on the ground or down the drain. They are harmful. That is why they have those scary pictures.

There is no tipping fee when only household hazardous waste is brought to the landfill as these materials are shipped to Miller Environmental in Winnipeg for safe disposal.

The Recycling Centre also collects fluorescent bulbs and paint.

Call the Recycling Centre at (204) 687-6169 if you have any questions. 

Originally published July 11/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

It is always a balancing act.

We want to make recycling as easy as possible, and there are things recyclers can do to make our job at the Recycling Centre easier.

If you need recycling to be simple,  please continue to put everything in a bag or box and bring it to the Centre or the trailer, or set it out for pick up if you live in Creighton or Denare Beach.

Please make sure everything is recyclable. Check the list with pictures at www.flinflonrecycling.org or on the Flin Flon Recycling Facebook page.

Shredded paper and batteries need to be in separate bags that can go in with your other recyclables.

Nothing should be drippy, sticky or gooey. Empty/drain all bottles.

If your recyclables are not in a closed box or bag or you need to keep your bin, please put them in the blue bins at the Recycling Centre. There should be no loose material in the trailer by Canadian Tire.

If you are willing to do a little extra to help us out, here are some suggestions.

• Remove lids from glass and put it in a separate bag. It can still go in with the rest of your recyclables.
• Put all aluminum cans in a separate bag too. We are now separating aluminum to sell for a good price while cardboard prices have fallen dramatically.
• A separate bag for white (#2HDPE) and orange or green (#5PP) pill bottles helps. Please remove the lids and anything inside.
• Remove all packing materials including Styrofoam and plastic from cardboard boxes. Paper and fibre packing can be recycled.

Thanks.
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Call us at (204)687-6169 if you have questions.

Originally published July 4/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

​I really wasn’t expecting the notice last week.

Effective August 1, the cost of sorting recyclables at the plant in Winnipeg will be increasing to $110.00 per metric ton (tonne).

It is currently $45.00 per tonne.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. China closing its markets didn’t affect us directly as none of our materials went there. But sale of recyclables is part of the market place that is affected by supply and demand. Prices have dropped significantly with the oversupply in North America.

Cardboard prices fell last fall from $90.00/tonne to $40.00.

As the company who sorts loses revenue from selling the recyclables, the cost of sorting must go up.

It seems obvious that we should crunch the numbers to see if it still pays to have our sorting done in Winnipeg. However, money is only part of the reason we do not sort here.

We do not have space to sort and store thirteen different kinds of materials until we have enough for a bale. We barely have enough space to manage everything now.

We began separating aluminum cans a few months ago. At $700.00/tonne we are trying to offset some of the lost revenue from cardboard.

One aluminum bale weighs between 150 and 200 kg. That is $105.00 to $140.00 per bale. Two bales are shipped on each load.

We also sell the office paper (called printers mix) for $65.00/ tonne.  The sale of cardboard and these items almost covers the shipping.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. While sales are only 10% of our revenue, this is a significant change to the budget plan.

We have some important decisions to make. 

Originally published June 27/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

The Recycling Centre continues to receive polystyrene items. People are often surprised that we do not take it as many items have the recycling symbol.

(I really wish packaging designers would quit making it so confusing!  The message needs to be ‘check with local recycling programs for acceptable materials.’)

Last year I did some research and here is what I found.

The technical name for number six plastic is polystyrene (PS). Meat trays and many other things are made from ‘extruded polystyrene’ or polystyrene foam.  Most of us call it Styrofoam which is actually a registered trademark of the Dow Chemical Company for extruded polystyrene used for thermal insulation and craft applications.

Polystyrene foam has many uses because it is strong, lightweight, cheap, and sanitary to use.

According to the Canadian Plastic Industry Association’s web page, polystyrene foam is very recyclable.  However, only about 35% of recycling programs in Canada accepts it.

This is because it is 90% air. It takes up a lot of space and is very light. It requires special machines to compact or ‘densify’ it enough to make shipping feasible.

The Recycling Centre gets a lot of polystyrene foam. Large pieces are often in cardboard boxes where it protected whatever came in the box. It must be removed before the cardboard is baled which takes time especially when it is very tight in the box.

Foam cups, meat trays, egg cartons, and other items often found with other recyclables we receive. They are removed and put in the garbage.

It is highly unlikely that we will ever recycle PS foam.

We are finding more fibre based packing materials which are recyclable.
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Hopefully it will become the norm.

Originally published June 20/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

The Recycling Centre usually has a booth at the spring Trade and Leisure Show displaying all the things that can be recycled and how much can be kept out of landfills.

This past spring I decided to pay the extra for a corner booth. One side displayed the usual recyclable items. The other side was a display of the common non-recyclable items we receive.

The display of non-recyclables was the most popular at the Leisure Show. Many were surprised by some of the non-recyclable items.

Seeing these items in real life is very effective.

The next best thing to seeing things in real life is pictures. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

We have recently added pictures to our website, www.flinflonrecycling.org. There is also a pinned post with pictures on the Flin Flon Recycling Facebook page.

There are two reasons the extra cost at the leisure show and the extra effort on the web is worthwhile.

The most obvious is that we want to reduce the amount of garbage we receive.

The second more important reason comes from a realization that people are uninformed.

It often feels like people are too lazy to or don’t care. This is probably true in some cases.

However, I have had many conversations with dedicated recyclers who didn’t know that a particular item is not recyclable. Plastic bags, Styrofoam and coffee cups are common examples.

This surprises me as this information has been a common message in our advertising. But people pay attention to different things or are not in a place to get the message.

The pictures and displays are another way to get the message out. 

Originally published June13/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

​Here are some of the things I wish for.

1. I wish manufacturers of packaging would think about recycling when they design their products. Recently I was looking for the recycling symbol on a large lid from a recyclable container. I found it after much searching. I should have had a magnifying glass. It was on the edge. Check out the picture on our Facebook page: Flin Flon Recycling.
   
2. 2. I wish everyone realized how easy it is to recycle.  The 20% increase in household recycling last year and the response I have received to the ‘Are you recycling?’ question at the Leisure Show had me believing most people are. A conversation this weekend brought me back to the reality. This person who lives in Creighton commented that she has not seen recycling out for pick up at most of her neighbours.
3. I wish people would make sure their garbage is disposed of in a garbage container. Nadine Porter and her group of volunteers have been very busy cleaning up the litter that shows up when the snow disappears. I cleaned up a stretch of the Perimeter last week.                                                                   People need to hold on to their plastic bags, drink containers, cigarette butts and packages, chip bags and candy wrappers, underwear, fishing line and pregnancy tests until they find a garbage container.  I also have concluded that many items placed in the box of passenger trucks are not secure and fly out during travel. 

One of my wishes is coming true. Based on the number of phone calls I receive and the conversations and messages on Facebook, more and more people want to dispose of their items the best way. 

Originally published June 6/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

Think Globally, Act Locally appears on our logo. I was recently asked what that meant.

It took me by surprise.  I gave a rather weak explanation about being aware of the big picture in the world and making changes at home.

A recent headline ‘Sick whale with dozens of plastic bags in stomach dies’, reminded me of this again.

Plastic is everywhere. Creatures become entangled in plastic rings from drink cans, or fishing nets or rope.  It becomes mixed in with the food for sea creatures causing poor health and death.

Huge, deep patches of plastic have accumulated where ocean currents meet affecting the amount of sunlight for plant life in the ocean.
 
Some of it has been irresponsibly dumped directly into the ocean. Much of it travels to the oceans through streams and lakes or is blown in the wind.

It is easy to blame cruise ships or countries who have used the ocean as their dump.

We must do our part here at home. Locally there are lots of plastic bags and other items in trees, ditches and wild areas. While it seems the ocean is a long ways away, the water in our rivers and lakes travels to the ocean.

It is easy to say that very little of it comes from here. But we don’t need to add our little bit to the big picture problem.  We need to do our part locally.

Many community members are busy cleaning up litter. Locally our community looks better.
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In the big picture it reduces the adverse effects on the animals and the pressure on our oceans that are a huge part of the earth’s life support system. 

June total – 46,496 kg
       
        Co-mingled* - 13,746 kg
        Office Paper – 3,215 kg
        Cardboard – 24,869 kg
        Glass – 3,697 kg
        Books -  723

Total for 2018 – 258,402 kg
Total for 2017 – 223,059 kg
Difference – +35,343 kg
 
Batteries – 66 kg

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


Comments – We are on track to beat our annual high of 500 tonnes. Last year's total was 463 tonnes. We are two short of 500 if you add the 35 we are ahead to 463. So if we only recycle the same as last year from here on, (plus 2 tonnes) we will make it. I predict a new high this year. 

There are serious challenges in the market. Our cost of having the commingled materials sorted in Winnipeg is increasing from $45/tonne to $110/tonne August 1.