Have you often been discouraged with household recycling ambiguity? I am consistently frustrated with not being able to determine in a timely manner what various household waste items can be recycled instead of landfill bound. I am determined to learn how household waste is managed in my home city. Below are initial steps for household waste reduction that everyone can consider. Before I present my steps, I’d like you to consider replacing the term “waste” with “material”. More to follow on the reason for this in another article. For now, I use the word “material” instead of “waste”. No time to read the rest? Right below is a flow chart of the 5 easy steps to consider when you have household material you no longer need. The rest of the article elaborates on these steps to inspire ideas for what might work for you where you live. Scroll down to see Step 1-5 details Step 1: Is the material usable in the way as was initially intended?If so, consider the following:
Step 2: Am I able to use the material for something new?Ideas to consider:
Step 3: Does the material go in any of my recycling bins?Step 3 requires you to have your city’s “where does it go” website page in your browser’s favourites. Hopefully your city has one of these web pages, but if not, your city likely has a page where it describes what material goes where. I visit my city, Barrie’s, “where does it go” web site page frequently to search and determine what material goes where. More recently, I searched “wooden chopsticks” and found that they go in the green bin. I have also tried searching for “#3 plastic” or “polyvinyl chloride” or “plastic packaging” for the item shown in the photo below and found no useful results. When in doubt, I put the item in the garbage (especially if it’s food-soiled paper or cardboard) to avoid making what is recyclable, unrecyclable in your city’s processing facility. I realize that I need to do more research to determine where these common, but ambiguous materials go. What ultimately determines where products go are the recycling processes available in your city. I’ll get into recycling process details in another article. Step 4: Is the material hazardous?Consider if the material you are using is harmful to your environment and ultimately yourself and others. Note, I’m not referring to the Canada Labour Code’s hazardous substances (industrial waste) here. A good definition of household hazardous material is “materials that when improperly disposed of through the sanitary sewer system [by way of kitchen or laundry room sinks] or otherwise, adversely affect plant and animal species, water quality and ultimately human public health”. Wastewater treatment plants are not designed to treat hazardous household materials such as fertilizers, cosmetics, paint, oil, medicine etc. when poured down the drain or allowed to run off the driveway into the sewer system and the material ends up discharged into the environment where there’s a potential and inevitable accumulation to harmful concentrations. If you are unsure if your material is hazardous, consult your city’s material management site and find the page for “household hazardous waste”. Barrie’s “household hazardous waste” page indicates what materials are considered “household hazardous waste” and where I can take them. I don’t have a lot of space to keep hazardous materials and I don’t want to spend my weekend in line to dispose of these hazardous materials, so having a city that has flexible and varied hours for hazardous material disposal is really important and worth advocating for. Step 5: Can I keep the material out of the landfill?This is the final step I consider if all other steps come back “No”. There is often another web page on your city’s material management site for recycling and disposal options not included in curbside pickup. In my case, Barrie’s “Household Hazardous Waste” facility, landfill and drop off “Waste facility” are in the same location. Therefore, other items that are recyclable such as electronics, wood and metal products or other products such as toilets or fridges I drop off at this multi-disciplinary facility. Note that fridges could contain ozone depleting substances or potent green-house-gases in their heat exchanger fluids so even if I’m having a disposal company pick up my refrigerator for disposal (because I don’t have a truck or an available friend with a truck), I ask to make sure the company disposes of the fridge at a licensed facility. There are also private material management facilities to consider. Getting to know these locations and what they take is beneficial. I’m sometimes sceptical of private facility material processing methods so I realize I need to do more research to determine laws governing private material processing and the methods used in my area. Final ThoughtsI use the above 5 steps when considering parting with my material. I have the above flow chart on my fridge as I consider this location to be where I make most of my material management decisions. I recommend adding “where does it go”, “household hazardous waste” and “recycling facility” web pages to your favourites so it’s fast for you to determine if the material can go in a curb bin or needs to be taken to a processing facility. I like having a thrift store box where I can place items all in one place for my next thrift store drop off. I keep glass pasta jars for oil/degreaser after cleaning my bicycle chain for easy transport to my “Household Hazardous Waste” facility.
I have more to learn and will eventually write about my city’s municipal recycling processes. Knowing where my material goes and what processes are used to recycle my material gives me more of an incentive to be part of the recycling solution. How can you tweak your household material management processes to feel good about your material management?
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply.ArchivesCategories |