This article appeared in the Jan. 12, 2007 issue of the Interlake Spectator…
“50-50” is how one attendant at Meleb’s waste disposal site describes the recycling effort there, with half the people, mostly younger ones, recycling.
As is the case with many of the waste disposal sites in the Interlake, the Meleb site is equipped with contained areas for glass, plastic, aluminium and tin, paper, hazardous materials, and places to put burnable and compostable materials, old tires, and metal, as well as garbage. Even so, “not everyone recycles and it’s difficult to enforce,” he said.
He described a situation where some people will save months of garbage. The recyclables are mixed in with the rotting garbage and then unloaded from the trailer. “You try sorting that!” he said.
Valerie Giesbrecht, manager of Cornerstone Enterprises, Inc., understands exactly what he means. Cornerstone has a large recycling facility in the Gimli Industrial Park, and employs 19 developmentally challenged adults in the recycling area, and seven staff who assist them.
“Recycling is very labour intensive anyway. I have a hard time understanding why people think it’s so difficult to wash out containers,” she said, remembering years of dirty cans and plastics that had to be sorted by hand.
Giesbrecht believes that the workers who sort these recycled materials are subjected to more dirt than even garbage collectors “who only have to touch plastic bags.”
“We had to shut down three depot sites (at South Beach, Camp Morton, and at the Recreation Centre),” she said. “People were putting garbage in with the recyclables—things like dirty diapers, used kleenex, paper towels, and composting material.”
The volume of recyclables is down as a result, but Cornerstone stepped up their curbside pickup to offset the shortfall. They are still having some problem with garbage getting mixed up with the recyclables, although not as bad as in the past. However, by spring or summer, people will be required to use the clear blue bags so this problem will be resolved for the benefit of the workers.
Giesbrecht is quick to add that not everyone has been careless. She expressed gratitude at the positive effort many people are making, some even taking the trouble to bring their recyclables to the Cornerstone site. “If we had more people like that we’d all be in better shape,” she said.
The virtues of recycling are so obvious. Really, it’s a no-brainer. The degree of time and trouble it takes to save and properly sort recyclables is miniscule when you measure it against the gigantic benefits.
Did you know, by recycling one aluminium can:
· you save enough energy to light one 100-watt light bulb for 20 hours.
· you save enough energy to run a television for three hours.
Or that plastic bottles can be used to make:
· carpets, fleece, and upholstery
· new plastic containers, and even automotive parts.
By recycling, you take part in this re-creative magic. You also help give landfill sites a longer life, and help to manage the health of our earth, our water, scores of plant and animal species, and ourselves, of course.
The benefits do not end with a cleaner environment or better health. There are positive economic and social spin-offs as well. A lot of money is saved when the life of landfill sites is extended, and more savings result if we don’t have to commit funds to cleaning up toxins that may leech into our ground water as a result of careless habits. Active recycling benefits business with savings in raw materials too, and recyclable goods are a source of revenue for facilities in our communities.
Alex Janower manages Riverdale Place Workshop in Arborg. The recycling portion of their day program is run by up to fifteen clients, a supervisor and a driver. Since the early 1990s, this group has been picking up recyclables from the towns of Arborg, Riverton, and the local landfill sites, and their own drop off bins at the workshop on Hwy. 68, on the west side of Arborg. The materials are sorted and baled, and then are sold to markets in Winnipeg.
In addition to partially funding their own programs, facilities such as Riverdale and Cornerstone provide what may, in the future, become an essential service for their communities. “The clients feel very proud of their achievements in recycling,” said Janower. “We also feel good—we’re helping the community.”
Recycling is a win-win situation for all concerned. After all this time, the task remains to instil the same pride of community in the general public—a pride which is starting to be shown at some of the landfill sites, but is lacking in others. Derelict recycling depots do little to encourage compliance.
One such place is the Komaro Waste Disposal site. Larry Lambert has worked there since last March. “I’d like to see a proper depot for recycling. This is a terrible situation,” he said.
The recycling boxes are rotting and overflowing. Without proper lids, snow is getting into the bins, and there hasn’t been recycling pick up for five or six weeks. “They’re supposed to do this every two or three weeks in the winter, and weekly in the summer,” said Lambert.
Some problems are easy enough to fix, and others are less straight-forward. There is the on-going problem of plastic shopping bags, which the attendant at Meleb says are “flying around like kites”. He explained the situation of birds ripping open garbage bags and then the bags flying off along the fences, into the woods and farmers’ fields where they sometimes end up being baled with hay.
Perhaps, when we have triumphed over our reluctance to recycle, we can move on to find the perfect solution to those nuisance bags.
I remember one clever grandmother who made strong, roomy bags by crocheting them 30 or 40 of them together. Maybe we could enlist the support of our elders to resolve this issue. It seems more workable than Manitoba Environment’s advise to hand pick the runaway bags and cover over the garbage more frequently, which sounds good in theory, but might be difficult in practise.
