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Waste Management / Hartland Landfill


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#41 Sparky

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 09:53 PM

An American tourist wrote a letter to the editor a number of years ago asking why on a return visit, he did not see the nice little colored worn pieces of glass that he used to see in the 50's on the beaches.

These were the bottles in the garbage that used to g-litter our shores.

#42 Mike K.

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Posted 20 August 2011 - 07:25 AM

I recall those rounded pieces of glass from my childhood :)

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#43 Rob Randall

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 06:09 AM

Can anyone say for sure what happens to our recycling with these harsh new rules in China that ban "foreign garbage"?

 

How much of the CRD's recycling is ending up in landfills? How much does the CRD know and are they unwilling to tell the truth for fear of people losing faith in recycling and having recyclables end up at Hartland instead of Chinese landfills?

 

Western states, which have relied the most on Chinese recycling plants, have been hit especially hard. In some areas — like Eugene, Ore., and parts of Idaho, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii — local officials and garbage haulers will no longer accept certain items for recycling, in some cases refusing most plastics, glass and certain types of paper. Instead, they say, customers should throw these items in the trash.

 

 

https://www.nytimes....WT.nav=top-news


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#44 Mike K.

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 06:43 AM

There's certainly far more to the 'recycling' regimes in Canada than meets the eye. Calgary is an interesting case in it was the last major city in Canada to implement curb side recycling (circa 2009), and it's also the poster child for China's import ban. First the city had nowhere to drop its 'recycled' glass so it went into the dump, and now it has an issue with plastics no longer accepted by China.

 

From 2013:

 

Jesse Kline: The great municipal recycling scam

http://nationalpost....-recycling-scam

 

...“Homeowners dutifully put out their glass, plastic, steel and aluminum packaging. But the only really valuable item … is the metal,” wrote Libin. “The trouble is that in the typical North American city’s solid waste stream (including trash and recyclables) aluminum and steel generally account for just 2% by weight. Glass sent to recycling facilities is heavier, making up 3% to 5% of typical city waste by weight. But although it demands more energy, there isn’t much use for it. All the glass collected this year by Calgary’s new program ended up at the East Calgary Landfill, where it is piling up for want of a buyer.”

 

Fast-forward to 2018:

 

Backlog means recyclable material could end up in a Calgary dump

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...china-1.4479075

 

A Chinese ban on most foreign recycling material is leaving some Canadian municipalities with stockpiles of papers and plastics, much of which may eventually end up in the dump.

 

The ban is also driving down the revenues cities make off their recyclables because the competition to find a company able to take the materials is stiff.


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#45 Rob Randall

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 08:15 AM

These articles mention every major city in western North America except Victoria it seems. Every time this question is asked there is just more conjecture and guessing. I want to know directly from the CRD what is the path of every main curbside item: paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and cans. 

 

I feel that once the middleman takes recyclables away the CRD washes their hands of the whole mess and has no further investment in the matter and are very reluctant to publicize the reality of recycling.


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#46 dasmo

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 08:41 AM

I remember the mountains of glass at the dump outside Ottawa. I was working for the NCC and was out on an errand with a coworker and they said "want to see something crazy?" It was crazy. Giant Mountains of bottles..... This was the start of my skeptical nature maybe.... I still f*cking separate my recycling even though I know it's just being dumped! 


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#47 mbjj

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 02:01 PM

I'm certainly tired of the "green" composting bin. You have to buy the correct bags, it's either swarming with fruit flies, or lately, small ants. If we leave it outside the back door, the raccoons get into it.  The city refused to dump our big bin last month because my husband had thrown in a couple of handfuls of moss. By the time it was picked up it had been sitting there for over four weeks and smelled like vomit. And that's just vegetables and fruit as I refuse to put any meat in it. If we put anything fishy or salmony, the wasps attack.



#48 Nparker

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 02:05 PM

I'm certainly tired of the "green" composting bin.

One benefit of living in a condo: my "compostables" go into a plastic bag in my freezer and when it gets full they get added to my garbage which ultimately makes its way to the landfill. I don't go anywhere near my building's disgusting "green" bin.



#49 LJ

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 07:52 PM

 

 

I feel that once the middleman takes recyclables away the CRD washes their hands of the whole mess and has no further investment in the matter and are very reluctant to publicize the reality of recycling.

We have a middleman that comes ahead of the recycling truck and sorts through all your recycling and relieves you of all your cans, generally making a mess on your driveway.


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#50 Rob Randall

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 07:58 PM

I looked out my living room window once and a guy in a Mercedes was going from bin to bin pulling out cans and bottles. Times are tough in Gordon Head.


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#51 jonny

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 08:06 PM

I am for recycling. I am for composting. These are good things.

But you have to laugh at some of the things that go on in regards to recycling/composting.

I think most of us have seen pictures of the mountains of un-recycled glass that is sitting in crushed piles because apparently it's hard and expensive to recycle glass.

Central Saanich got rid of Victoria's only major compost facility because it stunk. Uber green Victoria killed a compost facility because...it...smelled bad. OK...

Now we learn that shiploads of our garbage has gone to China for years for "recycling" only to maybe not be recycled very much.

Sometimes things happen that makes you lose faith in the system. I dunno. I guess that's why people become so cynical.

#52 Mike K.

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Posted 29 May 2018 - 08:21 PM

Out of curiosity I checked out my building’s three scrap bins. All were about 1/10th full, all eight (I think?) can/glass/plastic bins full, one massive garbage bin full, one getting there and two big cardboard bins doing solid business.

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#53 jonny

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Posted 12 July 2018 - 08:17 AM

Our property manager has informed us that all garbage/recycling contractors are no longer accepting glass in their recycling and have advised us to throw out all glass in the garbage bin (Alpine, Waste Connections, Waste Management, etc.). The rationale being that commodity pricing on glass is too low and there's too much contamination of glass within more valuable recyclables. Is anybody else hearing this?



#54 Nparker

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Posted 12 July 2018 - 08:32 AM

Our property manager has informed us that all garbage/recycling contractors are no longer accepting glass in their recycling and have advised us to throw out all glass in the garbage bin...Is anybody else hearing this?

I seem to recall my strata was told the same thing, although as of last night there was still a bin labelled "glass only" along side our other recycling bins.



#55 Mike K.

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Posted 12 July 2018 - 09:03 AM

Individual households have not yet been affected by these changes.

 

So what will happen to deposit fees retailers charge for glass bottles? Or will you only be able to recycle the glass at specific locations?


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#56 Mike K.

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Posted 12 July 2018 - 01:29 PM

The CRD has confirmed it continues to pick up glass as part of its curbside recycling program but they have not yet confirmed what they do with that glass. I've posed the question to them, so hopefully we'll hear back soon.


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#57 Rob Randall

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Posted 12 July 2018 - 02:51 PM

^Hopefully...ha!

 

I think the CRD wants to keep quiet about the true nature of recycling. I am aware they are a victim of global commodity economics and if word got out the high compliance rate we are known for will go down as demoralized people start giving up on recycling. But I think we are owed the facts.

 

Seems to me the whole concept of recycling has to be stripped down and rebuilt so that it makes economic sense. This may entail some hard and expensive decisions, like more labour at the start to properly sort and realistic user fees to pay for it all. 

 

But it's fair to say "what's the use" when even eco-friendly "recycled" water bottles contain 75% virgin plastic.



#58 Mike K.

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Posted 12 July 2018 - 03:09 PM

What's happening is the veil behind an agenda is being lifted.

Introducing more costs and an additional layer of bureaucracy (at-source sorting) to what is already an overly costly, bureaucratic problem will further complicate the process and further disengage constituents from what has been an idealogical agenda with little to no benefits to the overall state of the environment or the reduction in the extraction of resources.

What we should be pursuing are biodegradable materials, not layering up on bureaucracy to create institutions to handle materials that taxpayers pay heavily to see disappear from their doorstep but which end up exactly where bureaucracy tells us they can be trusted to not dispose of them, or are re-used over and over weakening their strength, weakening their durability, weakening their practicality but raising their costs.

We don't even know what's happening with our food scraps, and now the question of what's happening with glass has reared its head. What next? Are we going to learn our billion dollar sewage treatment plant is also not as environmentally sound as it is being built to appear?

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#59 sebberry

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Posted 12 July 2018 - 03:46 PM

Our property manager has informed us that all garbage/recycling contractors are no longer accepting glass in their recycling and have advised us to throw out all glass in the garbage bin

 

Good thing I'm already doing that with all my plastic!  Started on July 1 for anyone taking notes ;)

 

Anyway, nothing yet from our property manager or Alpine about our glass collection. 


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#60 Bingo

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Posted 12 July 2018 - 03:52 PM

Individual households have not yet been affected by these changes.

So what will happen to deposit fees retailers charge for glass bottles? Or will you only be able to recycle the glass at specific locations?

Here is some info.

https://recyclebc.ca...-recycle-glass/



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