CRD Recycling/garbage

'It's deceiving Canadians': Hidden trackers reveal plastic recycling dumped in Canadian landfill

After several instances of Canadian plastic waste turning up overseas in places like the Philippines and Malaysia, CBC's Marketplace wanted to track the lifecycle of Canadian plastic.

Journalists bought bales of film plastic ready for recycling, hid trackers inside them, and then re-inserted the plastic back into the recycling stream in British Columbia — the province known for having the most efficient recycling program in Canada.  

Only 1 company recycled the plastic

https://www.cbc.ca/n...e-box-1.5299176

The two trackers in Merlin Plastics' bales ended up at a recycling processing plant in Delta, B.C., suggesting it was recycled.

 

Both of the GFL trackers went straight to a waste-to-energy facility, a landfill alternative that creates power by incinerating garbage.

 

 

Meanwhile, when Waste Connections picked up the bales of plastic, the company said it would send the material to a recycling facility. However, the trackers showed that the bales ended up in a junkyard in Surrey, B.C., as well as a landfill in Richmond, B.C. 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 September 2019 - 04:33 AM.

It’s a critical project, because if nothing is done, the landfill will be full by 2045 and finding another site would be challenging technically and politically, officials say.

“So if we can make this last for another 55 years — and potentially longer — this is huge,” said Saanich Coun. Colin Plant, who chairs the CRD board.

He noted that the region is already doing better than the rest of the province, where the amount of waste ending up in landfills averages about 506 kilograms per capita. “But we want to be half [that] and I think we can do this,” he said.

Russ Smith, senior manager of environmental resource management, said one of the keys will be diverting construction and demolition material from the landfill.

Most of the work to divert waste from the landfill is being done by homeowners through curbside recycling, he said.

https://www.timescol...fill-1.23981824

i've often wondered about construction waste.   it's generally pretty clean and somewhat easily sorted.  doesn't drywall have some extended uses?  clean (unpainted) wood bits are easily burned as fuel.  i suppose glues and stains and paints and carpet and other flooring present more problems and they would be large parts of demolition waste.

what's our corrugated cardboard situation right now with regard to recycling?  that's likely on the increase with delivery (amazon etc.) increasing at a high rate.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 19 October 2019 - 06:01 AM.

More than 25,000 single-use items thrown out in downtown Victoria every day

 

https://www.vicnews....oria-every-day/

City staff say more needs to be done to prevent single-use items from going to the landfill

 

easy.  build a transfer/sort station at rock bay.  employ casual/homeless to sort.  garbage heads to the landfill and the recyclable goes to the various streams. 

but why are we one of the last canadian cities to have single garbage bins around street corners?  it's already well-known our citizenry is happy to diligently sort at home.  why no option at the street bin?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 November 2019 - 07:16 AM.

The study found on average that Victoria residents and visitors throw out 25,000 single-use items per day. This includes 13,000 paper cups, 6,300 food containers and 5,800 straws as well as half-a-tonne of food.

 

although that does not seem too extreme.  i think what you'd mostly expect to find is fast food leftovers/garbage/wraps/bags.  candy bars and chips bags.  dog crap bags.  some light items packaging (buy a set of earbuds or some mittens and thrown away the wrap/tags).  that's all i thrown in downtown bins.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 November 2019 - 07:26 AM.

but why are we one of the last canadian cities to have single garbage bins around street corners?  it's already well-known our citizenry is happy to diligently sort at home.  why no option at the street bin?

Many of those self-sorting bins in other cities are just feel-good installations. The big issue in recycling is "contamination", and all it takes is one broken glass bottle in the container bin, or one half-eaten burger in the paper bin, to ruin the load. That happens all the time, especially in a downtown with lots of tourists. It's much easier to control for contamination via the blue-box, and train residents over time with info campaigns and by refusing misplaced items ... like the CRD has started doing, making residents separate glass from other containers.

'It's deceiving Canadians': Hidden trackers reveal plastic recycling dumped in Canadian landfill
 
After several instances of Canadian plastic waste turning up overseas in places like the Philippines and Malaysia, CBC's Marketplace wanted to track the lifecycle of Canadian plastic.
 
Journalists bought bales of film plastic ready for recycling, hid trackers inside them, and then re-inserted the plastic back into the recycling stream in British Columbia — the province known for having the most efficient recycling program in Canada.  
 
 
 
Only 1 company recycled the plastic
 
 
https://www.cbc.ca/n...e-box-1.5299176

Is it possible the recyclable material was contaminated? Among other things possibly with a GPS tracking unit

I know of one big company who has recycling bins conveniently placed for tourists and others in their space . Guess what it’s all a show it goes in the garbage.

2015:

Canada's largest coffee chains are misleading customers about what happens to cups collected in their in-store recycling bins.

A CBC Marketplace investigation reveals that many paper cups collected by some Toronto Starbucks and Tim Hortons for recycling are sent to landfill, not to a recycling plant as many may believe.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...cling-1.3278648

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 November 2019 - 10:48 AM.

If the system is working properly shouldn’t the GPS unit be caught and sent to the landfill?

these were clear bales of recycling material.  their content was not in question at pick-up.

these were clear bales of recycling material. their content was not in question at pick-up.

Edited by todd, 08 November 2019 - 10:57 AM.

2015:
 
 
 
Canada's largest coffee chains are misleading customers about what happens to cups collected in their in-store recycling bins.
 
A CBC Marketplace investigation reveals that many paper cups collected by some Toronto Starbucks and Tim Hortons for recycling are sent to landfill, not to a recycling plant as many may believe.
 
https://www.cbc.ca/n...cling-1.3278648

2015:
 
 
 
Canada's largest coffee chains are misleading customers about what happens to cups collected in their in-store recycling bins.
 
A CBC Marketplace investigation reveals that many paper cups collected by some Toronto Starbucks and Tim Hortons for recycling are sent to landfill, not to a recycling plant as many may believe.
 
https://www.cbc.ca/n...cling-1.3278648

The one I’m thinking about would shock some because of who’s involved. 

greta thunberg?

mr. floatie?

david suzuki?  bill nye or al gore?

leonardo dicaprio?

Comrade Isitt?

stanhope farm for sale although the listing tries to hide the address.  $12m

https://www.realtor....568303/victoria

This family run business is in its infancy and looking for a new owner to take it to its full potential. Here is one of the best recycling operations, it has 3 components, yard / wood waste brought in and ground into bedding for cattle, the waste / manure from the cows is again ground and made into Organic Material, then this Organic Material is then Sold. On the 97 acres where are 4 residential homes, 5 barns, 2 Quonset buildings and work shop. There is approximately 65 - 75 acres of farm land to produce feed for the heifer cows. The limits are endless as to what you can do with this beautiful piece of property that is located 15 minutes from downtown Victoria.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 February 2020 - 04:47 PM.