Originally published Nov 7/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

The annual forum of the Manitoba Association of Regional Recyclers or MARR is this week.

This event is held in Winnipeg each year. Usually it is in October, but was delayed this year because of the municipal elections.

MARR’s membership is made up of municipalities and First Nations/Northern Affairs communities, recycling programs like the Flin Flon & District Environment Council, government and public sector agencies, recycling and waste management businesses, the Producer Responsible Organizations and other interested individuals and organizations.

MARR has been part of the recycling community in Manitoba for over twenty years. At the beginning it was a group of organizations in the province who were recycling and wanted to share information. Over the years the focus has expanded to include information about a variety of waste management issues and to include members from municipalities including Winnipeg, and other cities.

It has become more organized in the last 5 years and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2016.  It is looking for a new name that better reflects this expansion.
Some of the topics on this year’s forum agenda include recycling appliances with Ozone Depleting substances, community composting, recycling promotion and changing people’s behaviour, and a panel discussion on recycling markets and the ‘China Ban’.

Several Producer Responsible Organizations including those supporting electronics and battery recycling present information sessions.  Some also supply door prizes. 
MARR also has a spring event in a community outside of Winnipeg which includes a tour of a waste management facility, a keynote speaker and the Annual General Meeting.
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Both of these events provide a great opportunity to get information and to network with people who are doing many different things in waste management around Manitoba. 

Originally published Oct 31/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

A news item announcing the approval of the Five Year plan submitted to the Manitoba Government by the Electronic Products Recycling Association inspired today’s topic.

The Electronic Products Recycling Association (EPRA) is the Producer Responsible Organization (PRO) for the electronics industry.  It is a non-profit industry group that subsidizes recycling of the products they sell in Manitoba as required by the government.

The EPRA makes electronics recycling work in our community. The approved items are collected at the Centre, stacked on pallets and wrapped for shipping. EPRA provides large bags for small items like cords, phones, keyboards and computer mice.

Recyclable items include computers and attachments, televisions and attachments like video machines and satellite boxes, home and auto sound systems, floor standing printers, telephones and personal audio or video items. The only appliance that is accepted is microwaves.

When a load of pallets is ready to go, EPRA requests a trailer for the Recycling Centre to load. They pay the shipping.

They also pay for the work of collecting items, preparing them for shipping and loading. The amount is determined by the weight of the load.  The rate is $185/metric ton or tonne. If the load is over 10 tonnes, and extra $20/tonne is added. 

The amount varies between $1,800.00 and $2,200.00 per load which covers the Centre’s costs.

This money comes from the Environmental Handling fee that is paid when new items are purchased. 

The EPRA must make sure the electronics are recycled in a way that protects the environment and the health and safety of the workers. Local items are shipped to Exner  Ewaste in Elie, Mb.
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More information is available at www.recycleMYelectronics.ca .

Originally published Oct 24/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

A recent conversation about recycling surprised me. The gentleman was sorting out cans, plastics and paper products for recycling. He was unaware he didn’t need to because we haven’t sorted materials for five years.  

It reminded me of some other surprising conversations.

I noticed another gentleman dropping off two red bags of recyclables at the Centre.  He was new in town and didn’t know the red bags were for curbside pickup in Flin Flon. He thought all recyclables had to go in red bags.   I suggested that since he was buying the red bags he could have recyclables picked up at his home in Flin Flon Wednesday mornings.  

I explained that he needed only one red bag for curbside pickup as they are expensive. He readily agreed on the expensive part! I told him the price covers the cost of the service and if he had more than one bag of recyclables he could use cheaper clear bags for the rest.

I overheard another surprising conversation.  A gentleman from Creighton dropped off his recyclables while the contractor for Creighton curbside service was unloading. The contractor informed him that he would pick his recyclables up at his house.  I was surprised he was unaware of the service.  

I was surprised because we make information available in many places.

I guess I shouldn’t be. Unless people are in the right place at the right time to hear messages on the radio, or read information on signs or in the newspaper, they will be uniformed.

Our survey indicated that most people get recycling information from others. So please spread the word Refer friends and family to our website  or they can call (204) 687-6169.

Originally published OCT 17/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

‘R’ is a letter that begins many words in the discussion of taking care of the environment.  Some examples are: rethink, reclaim, recover, repair.

The most common and most important are the Three R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

These are listed in order of importance in minimizing damage to the earth. The Recycling Centre’s main activity is third on the list, but we also provide opportunity to reuse.

The Cardboard challenge held last weekend is an example. Cardboard boxes and a variety of other materials were provided by the Centre for an afternoon of fun and creativity. At the end, as many materials as possible are recycled.

Many people pick up boxes from the Centre when they are moving and recycle them when they are finished.

Another popular item is plastic pails. This includes large white pails and ice cream pails. We collect them as they are number two or five plastic which is recyclable, but if they can be reused, that is better.  We save ice cream pails all summer for blueberry season.

We often receive requests from teachers and children’s activity leaders for items for projects such as tin cans, small jars, milk cartons and magazines.

We keep a supply of wine bottles on hand for those making wine at home.

Sometimes we advertise items. Often we pass things on to the local second hand stores including the Re Uz It store.

The Recycling Centre is happy to help the community reuse things, recognizing that reusing is more important than recycling. The items are given away, although a donation is appreciated.
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If there is something you need that we may have, please call us at (204) 687-6169.

Originally published Oct 10/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

I received a call yesterday inquiring if we recycle plastic straws. I am always happy to answer questions.

The answer is no.

Most single-use plastic items are not recyclable so create a lot of garbage. The exception is plastic cups that are either #1(PETE) or #5(PP) plastic.

Single-use plastics have been in the news lately.  A few weeks ago I saw the headline ‘Costa Rica Becomes the first country to ban single-use plastics’. More recently the Canadian Minister of the Environment stated the federal government will be working towards removing all single-use plastics from their operations.  

The picture of the sea turtle with a straw stuck in his nose had a significant impact.
 
It changes the conversation from plastic bags to all single-use items.

Many places have banned plastic bags, although a closer look at the details shows that it is really single-use plastic shopping bags that are banned. 

Some municipalities allow heavier weight plastic shopping bags. Most allow the single-use bags that bread and other products are packaged in, bags for fresh produce or items purchased in bulk, dry cleaning /laundry bags and garbage and other bags for waste and recyclables.

All single-use plastic includes all plastic bags, straws, cutlery, Styrofoam plates/cups, and wrap, to name a few.

These things, plus larger things like fishing nets, are creating the islands of plastic in the oceans, damaging sea creatures and the food chain.

A good place to start is to carry a reusable fork and straw to use when needed.
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Flin Flon considered a plastic bag ban a couple of years ago and decided against it. It may be time to reconsider. Is this an issue for the municipal election?

Originally published Oct 3/18 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

The other day I emptied a very fishy bag. There were some empty minnow containers and a full one along with several bottles with drinks in them. Aside from the smell, the really bad thing was that all the recyclable paper went in the garbage because it was soaking wet and fishy.

Many other bags have bottles that are very drippy, or half full with the lid on. Often paper items in these bags have to be thrown out.

Leaving the lid on a container does not solve the problem as everything is pressed together in bales for shipment. Bottles usually burst in the baling process contaminating everything around them in the bale.

It is not uncommon to see puddles of laundry soap under a bale. Because of this, we regularly check laundry soap containers and drain them, which slows down our process. We do not catch all of them.

I think we need to get our slogan ‘Not, Drippy, Sticky or Gooey’ out there more.

So I was very glad to see the new advertising campaign from Recycle Everywhere. The ads say ‘Left over liquids turns blue bins in to garbage bins’ and ‘Contamination makes your recycling go to waste.’

There are other complications from recyclable items coming to us with food, drink, soap and other liquids inside of them. More solid things like yogurt and peanut butter also cause problems.

These things get into the conveyor and baler gumming them up. Liquids often drip on the floor causing it to become very slippery.

So please take a bit of time to drain liquids and clean out other containers so everything you send for recycling can be recycled. 

October total – 38,971 kg
       
        Aluminum – 479 kg
        Co-mingled* - 10,225 kg
        Office Paper – 2,262 kg
        Cardboard – 22,066 kg
        Glass – 3,596 kg
       

Total for 2018 – 430,810 kg
Total for 2017 – 392,741 kg
Difference – +38,069 kg


Batteries – 34  kg

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


Comments – October was slower than last year when we recycled 42 tonnes. So we have slipped a bit and may not make 500 tonnes this year.