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...
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| 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 |
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| Bailed materials |
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| A look up to the manual sorting line |
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| Poly coat- bailed |
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| Poly coat- sorted pile |
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| Material being put into the line for processing |
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| Aluminium bailed |
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| The reject pile. |
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| The tour crew |
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