It’s time for a Clean Break!

“Frankly, even if they deliver it to me for [free], which is a very expensive route for them, given all the freight costs, we would not take it today,” says Sims General Manager Tom Outerbridge, who’s had to recycle a similar version of this bad news more than a few times over the past while. And for more on Solid Waste Management protocols, click here. Lawmakers in the European Union voted in March to ban single-use plastic items such as straws, cutlery, cotton swabs and Styrofoam containers by 2021. Desperation had set in. But the creation of new plastic is energy-intensive and a growing source of carbon pollution. 333 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1G9 © 2002-2020 Rogers Media. Still, she believes that a harmonized approach and common standards between provinces would help. A three-hour tour through the city Wednesday turned up lots of disappointing dumping, including some illegal unloading comprised of 100 per cent recyclable material.

Readers can also interact with The Globe on Facebook and Twitter . Environmental organization says one million recyclable bottles, cans ‘go missing’ daily in B.C.

(Chinese imports of Canadian used paper also plunged, by 65 per cent; that drop poses less of a challenge – paper is a homogeneous commodity and generally easier to recycle). The extended holding pattern the scrap was forced to endure is a symptom of a much wider emergency engulfing the global recycling industry. Recycling is more than just tossing plastics or paper into the right bin — some items need to be cleaned out and others are simply unwanted.

Yet, such packaging is not always recyclable. Book a vehicle through a car share co-op. China’s crackdown on importing used plastics is creating limits on everyday household recycling a half world away, and highlights North America’s addiction to cheap plastics.

Usually, Mr. Badger explains, the offending item is a hose or electrical cord that gets wrapped around the machinery. The following items are considered abandoned waste: The Capital Regional District (CRD) is the regional government for 13 municipalities and three electoral areas on southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, serving more than 418,000 people. China and Hong Kong alone imported US$81-billion worth of scrap plastic between 1988 and 2016, the authors said. 351 King Street East, Suite 1600, Toronto, ON Canada, M5A 0N1, Canada agrees to cover cost of bringing back garbage-filled containers from Philippines. Post an online ad for your item - make sure to specify that pick-up is required.

That means recycling costs are borne by multinational packaged-goods companies and food retailers, rather than municipalities.

For instance, labels and adhesives used on certain plastics – clamshells that hold berries are a prime offender – can yield a lower-quality resin that makes them harder to convert into new products. But with China cutting its imports of scrap plastic by 96 per cent, Canada’s recycling industry is struggling. We continue to monitor water quality in the lake. Most recycling involves “downcycling”: Plastics degrade over time, and end up in lower-quality products, and eventually cannot be recycled at all. In other words, no chip bags, multilayer pouches or candy wrappers. Check your municipality’s list.

The past year, she notes, has been "very challenging in the sense that we’re on our own.”. Still, Ms. McKenna called China’s crackdown a wake-up call that points to a need for better waste-management systems. Concrete-manufacturing giant LafargeHolcim also plans to burn more of the region’s plastic waste to fuel its cement plant and kiln in Richmond. McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant, BizPaL Online Business Permits and Licences, Large materials, including furniture, mattresses, TVs and appliances, Donate the item to charity if it is in good condition (call first to ensure that your item is needed), Try to sell or give away the item using free online services, Bring the item to the landfill or a facility near you for proper disposal. Canada Fibers, which processes recycling at its Vaughan facility, just north of Toronto, says its investments in technology – such as optical sorters – have put it in a better position to churn out high-quality bales of used paper and plastic for further processing.

For all that’s known about the value and importance of preserving every ounce of our precious resources, many still don’t take the time to put the proper waste in the proper place, and that’s why Toronto ‘s “recycling police” are finally … Take plastic film, for example, used to make grocery, bread and dry-cleaning bags. Victoria, British Columbia The real challenge, says Usman Valiante, who helped design B.C.’s recycling system and is a director with Alberta’s Beverage Container Management Board, is to move away from a linear economy that endlessly consumes resources, toward a circular system that reuses them. Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. Ms. Quinn and others say there is a strong market for certain kinds of plastic waste, provided incentives are in place. You have activated your account, please feel free to browse our exclusive contests, videos and content. “Sometimes it’s hard to convince people when you’ve got so much space.”, That attitude has led to another problem.

Canada does not regulate the distance waste can travel, notes Cassandra Kuyvenhoven, a PhD candidate at Queen’s University who is studying the transportation of waste: “We haven’t had that kind of catalyst moment of saying, ‘We can’t do this any more, because we’re running out of space.’”.

Consider those multilayer stand-up pouches used to package an array of goods, from croutons to baby food. Doing the right thing may not be as costly as you think. Once a source of revenue for the community, the municipally owned and operated local material-recovery facility – known as a MRF (and pronounced “murf’’) – lost money last year. “It was a charade.”. The market for this film plastic is oversaturated. Canada V8W 1R7. {* createAccountButton *}, You may have created a profile with another, For all that’s known about the value and importance of preserving every ounce of our precious resources, many still don’t take the time to put the proper waste in the proper place, and that’s why. “We had no other option,” he says. They increase shelf life. But there was a hitch. In order to further minimize contamination, officials had to cut processing speeds in half, driving up costs for an already expensive service.

By March, the officials appealed to Sims Municipal Recycling in Brooklyn, N.Y. – a last-ditch bid to clear a backlog of hard-to-recycle packaging that had swelled to 1,400 tonnes, the equivalent of seven blue whales, stranded, in this case, in trailers at a local landfill. Get breaking news, weather and traffic stories in your inbox 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. HOW THIS IS HANDLED: Though some communities, including Toronto, do accept plastic bags, many other communities no longer do.



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