WebStamp May 02, 2018

Is Recycling going Astray?

Most Calgarians believe that recycling is beneficial to preserving our resources and helping save the environment. Let’s reflect on the recent news that the Pacific Garbage Patch, which is largely composed of plastic, is now being estimated at 16 times its original size, an area of over 2 million km², comparable to the size of Greenland. Now think about the recent information campaigns by Calgary Waste & Recycling on what is recyclable and what isn’t because their equipment is unable to process it, has me wondering if recycling could make even a larger eco-friendly impact. With the single-use plastics, such as plastic cutlery, cups, lids, straws, etc. classified as garbage indicates a large amount of non-decomposing recyclable materials are actually buried in our landfills.

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.jpg

Also, I have heard about unconfirmed reports of citizens witnessing the dumping of recyclables in the landfills. Apparently, rumors utter that this may be due to Calgary possibly having an issue disposing of some of the recyclables collected. Shards from crushed recycled glass items have been stockpiled at the East Calgary Landfill since there just isn’t any demand and waiting for a buyer. After 3 years of collecting glass shards, the city in 2012 decided using the two-meter-high pile of glass mixing it with the aggregate used for underlay in road construction

Recycling processing costs have escalated leaving many recyclables not profitable. Glass and plastic are not as profitable as aluminum and tin cans.

The process can become costly converting one material into other recyclable products. There’s no value in it and Nobody wants it as San Francisco’s Department of Waste recently discovered after paying $4,000 a tonne to recycle plastic bags. This leaves an undesired high resale price for the recycled product at $32.  

Recycling should not be all about cost but saving the environment and sustainably maintaining our resources. Not saving the environment ends up costing more in the future. As we pollute and not take care of cleaning up properly we end up spending more to fix the problem in the future. As an example, we now have to spend much more eliminating our air pollution problem and controlling it then if we had just maintained it properly.

A recycling program should include using the current resources locally where we can save on shipping costs and reduce transportation pollution. Calgary could introduce another bin, say white, for glass. This would help sort the glass cleaner without all the debris from the other recyclables as with using the current blue bins. This clean glass could be recycled into new glass bottles. The city could also help establish a bottle making plant to use this clean glass. 

An entrepreneurial opportunity exists for the city to create employment by building a glass recycling bottle making plant. There are lots of breweries in Alberta that would support buying bottles from a local source and Join the Movement to improving the local economy with local commerce. It would be nice if the Alberta Government addressed the recycling program as a job creation program putting many Albertans to work cleaning up the environment.

With the right approach, recycling can be profitable as long as we find creative ways to reuse the items we collect. We must first eliminate the many excessive unnecessary costs like excessive shipping along with developing new local avenues for our discards of living.   

Share This Article

ArcherInspections1x2feb2318.jpg

 

Loading Conversation
  1. References:

Marinus (René) Verschuren
Marinus (René) Verschuren
Founder of WebStamp
René has been involved in the publishing and printing industry since the 1970s. He has published and distributed a successful 24-page weekly news advertiser with a circulation of 4400 copies. Also for the last 20 years, he has been a printer, plotter, scanner and 3D printer technician and installer. Since High School, he also has worked as a janitor, cabinet maker, building construction, landscaper/designer, computer operator producing microfiche, graphic artist, and webmaster, among many other professions. This qualifies him as a Jack-of-All-Trades with plenty of knowledge in many subjects.
Articles in this Issue
The world of commerce has changed dramatically with the evolution of the World Wide Web.Brick & Mortar stores today are having a difficult time competing with the e-commerce and the new trend m-commerce.
Most Calgarians believe that recycling is beneficial to preserving our resources and helping save the environment. Let’s reflect on the recent news that the Pacific Garbage Patch, which is largely composed of plastic, is now being estimated at 16 times its original size, an area of over 2 million km², comparable to the size of Greenland. With the single-use plastics, such as plastic cutlery, cups, lids, straws, etc. classified as garbage indicates a large amount of non-decomposing recyclable materials are actually buried in our landfills.
There has been a lot of debate on whether Calgary should host another Winter Olympics. Hosting a world-wide event today is a totally different hockey game compared to the successful hosting of Calgary’s 1988 Winter Olympics. Decide for yourself.