Monday, March 28, 2016

Gather The Women in Kawartha Lakes


Calling All Pleasant Point/Kennedy Bay/Snug Harbour Area Residents (Kawartha Lakes)


2016's Pleasant Point Community Clean Up will focus on the 1/4 mile of Snug Harbour Road between Pleasant Point Road and Kennedy Bay Road. 

Anybody that has travelled that stretch knows how badly it needs it. There is allot of wet, deep, and steep areas and ALLOT of garbage so we sure could use all of the help we can get!

Many Hands Make Lighter Work


Please  help us!

Sunday April 24th 2016
Meet at the corner of Snug Harbour/Pleasant Point Road at 10am
Wear rubber boots or hip waders and gloves, bring your refillable water battle and snacks if needed.
 Rain or shine.

See you there!



Julia Taylor
juliataylor@live.ca
705-201-1120

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Litter is Coming Out Of Hibernation in Kawartha Lakes




Aaah winter. So pretty. It covers up all of the garbage.





Unfortunately, now that the snow is melting away, all of that litter is re emerging. There just seems to be so much of it this time of year.

I got so sick of it one spring a few years ago that I did what the average engaged citizen would do. I complained. I wrote a letter to express my distaste over the amount of trash that was trashing up my neighbourhood.

And you know what that accomplished?

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Hmmph! Well, I never!



What I did next might shock you (reader discretion advised)



I cleaned it up myself!


Yup, garbage all garbagy, neighbourhood all cleany.


The thing is, I cared enough about it that I wanted to change it. So I figured I might as well do it myself because complaining wasn't doing anything except littering people's ears with garbage talk.

At first I remember hiding my garbage bag when people drove by. What would they think of me picking up garbage?

But I realized I wouldn't think twice about picking up garbage on my lawn. And this community is our collective lawn.

Being a steward to our community and our environment is a good deed, and adds value to everyone's lives.

So if the trash is bugging you, grab a bag and be proud to be a steward. You could even host a community clean up.

Did you know you can adopt your road, and the city will help you with supplies and landfill fee's? Check out your local service centre for details, or right here. You even get a fancy sign!




My daughter found 5 bucks picking up litter one day!  Stewardship pays!


"Be the change you want to see"-Mahatma Gandhi


As printed in the Kawartha Promoter as my column "It' Easy Being Green."


Thanks for reading my blog/column.
Julia Taylor
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The sign I made for our clean up in 2015.

The litter collected at the 2015 clean up.




Saturday, March 5, 2016

More Ways to Recycle Better in Kawartha Lakes- Tips from the Recycling Facility Staff



The biggest complaint from the staff at the Material Recovery Centre is the rats!








Too bad I didn't get to see any- but I did learn a ton, and I'm eager to share it with you because I know how good it makes us feel to do the right thing and sort our recyclables- so we want to make sure we are doing it properly.



Here are the top 3 things 
we need to get better at...






Bags and all film plastic need to be put into one bag and tied tight, when it is loose it is hard to sort and gets caught in all the machinery so much of it wont be recycled.





Cleaning your recycling is the best thing to do, but rinsing it or at the minimum removing the food from it is what is needed- if you are sending your containers dirty- they are NOT being recycled. The number one culprit- peanut butter containers.





The machinery that sorts the recycling is done by weight, so if a water or pop bottle has liquid in it the machinery is not able to sort it properly and thus rendering the bottle not recyclable! Another reason to remove lids!!



Some other things I noticed and questions that were answered...


Q. Why cant we put our container recycling in plastic bags? 

A.  Because things get caught in the bags and then do not get recycled and can cause the machinery to malfunction. Also unfortunately allot more garbage gets put in with the recyclables when it is bagged, making allot more materials unrecoverable, and is also a health and safety issue for the employees- remember the rat thing!

Q. Why don't we have a green bin program in Kawartha   Lakes?

A.  Kawartha Lakes does not have the quantity of green waste to offer a program like this. The facilities needed to process green bin waste are expensive to build and require a certain amount of material to support them financially. City staff are constantly in talks with other municipalities to try and make a project like this go forward, but unfortunately they are not there yet- they encourage residents to compost in their backyards.


A Little something I noticed...
The glass pile.


In the glass pile I noticed a ton of can lids (the ones you use a can opener to get off). The glass pile goes to Guelph and is sorted more thoroughly- now I don't know if those lids eventually get recycled but I do know that more sorting and transporting equals more resources needed to recycle that product- so from now on when I open a can I will leave it attached so that the lid will remain with the can and has a better chance of being recovered.

I hope you learned as much as I did!

For more ways to recycle better in Kawartha Lakes check out my last blog post...

How To Recyle Properly In Kawartha Lakes


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Me with the container recycling before it heads to the line



Bailed materials


A look up to the manual sorting line


Poly coat- bailed

Poly coat- sorted pile

Material being put into the line for processing

Aluminium bailed

The reject pile.
The tour crew