A better way to recycle

Lately, Canadians have been hearing about just how terrible our recycling system really is. With garbage and contaminated recyclables rotting overseas, our once proud recycling reputation is in the trash. Provincial and federal goverments can use policy to make some important changes, but in the meantime, what can we, as individuals and small municipalities do?

Well, we need to make sure what we're leaving on the curb is clean and properly sorted; making it a desirable product for recycling. This also means that cities with "single-stream" recycling programs need to switch to a "multi-stream" program. Basically, dumping all out recycling items together in one box is a terrible idea. Glass breaks, and greasy pizza boxes contaminate, turning all your newspapers and yogurt containers into trash.

But our recycling system needs so much more.

We must charge manufacturers a fee to cover the end cost of disposing and recycling their packaging materials (and ultimately their products). This money can be used to build a local recycling industry and infrastructure, with the end goal of eliminating the need to ship our plastic to developing countries at all!

Happily, if you live in BC, a program of this type has already been in place since 2013. You can read more about it here. https://recyclebc.ca/

But this system doesn't cover everything. We are told to bring items like Styrofoam, plastic bags, electronics, batteries, lightbulbs, metal, clothing, and wood to our local recycler... but what does that actually mean?

For me, it means a headache... and a lot of driving in my fossil-fuel burning SUV. Below is a list of what I do to recycle. Feel free to skip it, I just wanted to get this off my chest.

• Styrofoam: Accepted at a local recycling facility in limited quantities until 12 pm or until full capacity is reached (often full by 10am).
• Plastic bags: Clean, properly sorted shopping bags easily accepted. But you need to be trained to do this properly. Do not include any sort of plastic bag that is bonded with another material (paper and aluminum) or of variable thickness (think stand-up bags and ziplock closures, these take longer to melt down completely and the thicker plastic that doesn't get melted can snarl the machine-- or so I've heard).
• Plastic packaging of variable textures and thickness: After becoming an expert at separating plastics, I collect my crinkly cereal bags, chip bags, granola wrappers, and mesh onion bags and deposit them by 9am at a local recycler. The company than sends these plastics to the Burnaby Wastse to Energy incinerator.
• Metal: There are several metal recyclers, but I have to make a special trip.
• Large electronics: One of our local Salvation Armies does brisk business recycling electronics, just make sure you've wiped all personal info!
• Wood: I can have wood mulched and turned into other products but there's a min $25 fee... and the wood has to be clean, not full of old nails and some kinds of paint.
• Unusable clothing: Value Village does business with overseas resellers and ragmakers. I drop off my old clothes and my rags together and hope for the best. However, I am skeptical just how well this "rag" buisness model works. I have heard that unusable clothing often ends up in a poluting burning pile somewhere overseas.

And so on...

Also, most normal (not crazy recycling) people would have NO IDEA how and where to recycle the items listed, as this information is not advertised and can only be discovered through word of mouth or actually talking to employees working in these spaces. 

I suspect this may be due to a capacity problem as most places are operating at full capacity without saying a word.

So what am I doing to advocate for a better recycling system?

My suggestion is an expanded one-stop recycling facility for everything not collected curbside, run by the city. If this is done, our extended recycling services can be brought together and be operated with municipal oversight. I think the perfect spot for such a facility would be near the current waste transfer station (town dump). Having a central station would make things much less confusing and could aid in public education, helping our recycables become a high-quality and in-demand product.

Today, I'm going to send a letter to a member of my town council. A little birdy told me that this idea is something that has been advocated by staff in cityhall but it needs a public push to get off the ground. So this is my first step. I'll let you know when I get a response.

Wish me luck!