To Recycle or Not

I just heard CITI-FM news report where Winnipeg is poorly ranked nationally (last I believe) in the recycling game. I don’t know if this is a chicken and egg thing but…

I lived in Toronto until 2006. They had an extensive and successful recycling program where there were FOUR bins: green, blue, grey and your everyday old fashioned garbage can. They picked up these bins on a cycle. Green for wet recyclables (kitty litter for example); blue for bottles and cans; grey for paper; everything else was tossed in the standard garbage bins. I think I have the colour correlation correct… Toronto also picked up stoves and sofas – the uber-big stuff.

Perhaps if the City of Winnipeg were to develop such a system here, make the bins available to homeowners, we’d be a lot better at it. Just thinkin’.

The problem we have is that we can't use the stuff we are trying to recycle. The market for recycled material is very weak here.

For one thing, why don't they have a setup like Alberta; provide bottle depots for people to bring in their bottles in return for cash. The bottle depots are always packed out here. If you provide incentives for people, you'd be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Agreed EdWin. I know we have central recycling spots (Taylor and Cambridge for example). But we can do more.

A huge problem is that the recycling pick up is not as organized as the garbage pick up is. As well when you have your recycling bins consistently strewn all over the place as opposed to put back in the drive way/curb the way you left it, a lot of people become disheartened with it and give up on it. I know that we have 4 bins (one for each family member) and for the most part we are looking for at least one of them on a regular basis after pick up. I drive through some of the more affluent neighbourhoods and this is also the case there so it has nothing to do where I live.
And I agree with the incentive part of the bottle program. We pay a $.02 levy on every recyclable item we purchase from pop bottles to juice cartons but there is nowhere that we can receive this cash back from. Just seems logical to me to offer us the cash back on things that we don't have a choice but to buy and pay the levy on.

We can put all the garbage we want in special bins, but if we don't have a market for the stuff, it ends up in the landfill anyway.

I think Winnipeggers are fast enough to realize all the hoopla about recycling is nothing more than blah-blah and in turn, skip the middleman and put their garbage in their garbage cans.

JTF says there is no market for recyclables....from what I hear, that's correct. But, it wasn't very long ago that there was a huge market for the stuff, so much so, that companies were making money hand over fist for our "junk" and now, it's rumored that they will have to start charging us to recycle what they used to take for free (not really free, porperty taxes pay for them to come and pick it up).

My question is, if we don't have a market for it, why not stockpile it for now and wait until the market recovers? We have a sortation plant, sort it (keeps people working) and deposit it at a holding facility (Brady road was/is holding recyclables until the recycling plant is back online) until we can find a buyer for it?

It's a much better idea then dumping it with the rest of the trash.

And yes, I agree with the bottle return program, that would make too much sense, so we'll continue to go without.

And the Toronto multi-box idea....would work if we had some kind of government that gave a damn about recycling.

grumpy old man wrote: Green for wet recyclables (kitty litter for example)

You can recycle kitty litter now?

How so?

Scooped or unscooped?

JT Estoban wrote:

grumpy old man wrote: Green for wet recyclables (kitty litter for example)

You can recycle kitty litter now?

How so?

Scooped or unscooped?

Kitty litter can be washed, dried, and reused.

MOST people won't do it at home because of the time and effort...but you could do it.

Plus, if you use the Recycled Newspaper litter...it's just paper...again, wash, dry, reuse.

I remember when I was a kid...our litterbox just had shredded newspaper in it...no kitty litter.

Last week's kitty litter as today's newspaper....

^
Good idea! We've got the space at Brady Road so it would just be designating areas for particular stuff to be stored.

Has anybody seen Wall-E?

Maybe we should get a bunch of cube-compactors like that?

Stack them up...maybe even weld the cubes together...build some low-income housing .

Wall-E is an awesome movie

My cats are fussy about what they will allow to be used for them to poop into. They won't accept paper, pellets, silica crystals...only clumping clay.

Take away the clay and they search for the nearest house plant! One will even look for a laundry basket to protest...so I don't think that's going to work for us....

JT Estoban wrote:My cats are fussy about what they will allow to be used for them to poop into. They won't accept paper, pellets, silica crystals...only clumping clay.

Take away the clay and they search for the nearest house plant! One will even look for a laundry basket to protest...so I don't think that's going to work for us....

If you want them to get used to other types...try mixing them.

For example if you want to switch to newspaper...put 75% clay 25% newspaper. Then the next change do 50%/50% and so on.

It's not so much texture for the cat, as smell. It doesn't smell "familiar" so they protest.

The clay (if it's real clay) litter can also be used for "sanding" icy driveways. I'd only recommend it for LONG driveways, so you're not walking through it and tracking it in your house.

Our nieghborhood seems to have fairly high participation we do it . Wonder how they came up with the info about this .

The info is from 2006 and its just the statscan stuff.

Furniture pickup wouldn't be a bad idea either....my area of town has couches and mattresses leaning against dumpsters and in snowbanks all over the place....And they have been there since before Christmas!

Not sure if there is much to recycle from those, other then some wood and metal...

all the city does for funriture pick up is throw it out. AND it is supposed to cost $10 so people just leaving it out ... and not callign the city and promising to pay....it wont get picked up until the city does a clean up.

weird...the city comes by and picks up furniture and large items once per month in my area.

they don't pickup mattresses though.

Suppose that's the difference between the 'burbs' and the 'slums'...

I made my choice of where to live....now I just have to figure out a way to escape!

i wouldn't call my area the 'burbs'...i'm downtown, 3 blocks east of Arlington...near Portage.

some areas actually have a higher rate of large furniture pick up because of past history of fires

JTF wrote:We can put all the garbage we want in special bins, but if we don't have a market for the stuff, it ends up in the landfill anyway.

I think Winnipeggers are fast enough to realize all the hoopla about recycling is nothing more than blah-blah and in turn, skip the middleman and put their garbage in their garbage cans.

That is a very sad and disturbing mindset, and a big part of why we are killing our only home.

I recycle and almost 100% of the people on my street do as well. I do my part. :-)