Calgary recycles

[RWin]

We got our blue bin today.

I'm looking forward to the convenience but wonder about the reality of the recycling program.

I can be lazy and just throw everything into the bin and someone else will sort it. Great - as long as I stick to the rules and only put in there what they'll accept. I can just picture people using it as a garbage bin.

Then once they collect all that stuff, what happens to it? I've been hearing that there really isn't much of a market for recyclables. Will it all actually get turned into something or will it end up in empty containers on a ship back to China?

So, on the surface at least, it seems like a good program. And I'm happy to pay $8 for it. But what will really happen with all our paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, etc?

[Wooster]

Calgary finally made it to 1992!!! wahoo!

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by Wooster

Calgary finally made it to 1992!!! wahoo!

While it can be argued that we should have done this sooner, remember that until now the city of Calgary has devoted the bulk of its "waste re-processing" funds to building possibly the BEST waste water treatment process in the world.

Since municipal revenue is fixed, I'm glad we focused on water first then made this leap to solids. Now that we have, I can't think of any city in NA that handles ALL ITS WASTES better than Calgary. Kudos to us!!! (Okay E town is still ahead of use wrt composting, but our water treatment is still better than theirs!)

[mersar]

A lot of the material will be processed fairly quickly, though some things they may just store until the market recovers (the market for recycling is very cyclic, as the largest buyer of bulk quantities of recycled product is China, mostly paper and plastic, and they tend to flip between where they buy quite a lot, but fortunately if you have space you could make a nice profit if you hold on). A lot of the material though from Calgary supposedly will be used by local companies, I recall hearing something about one of the major shingle manufacturers being the destination for a lot of the paper and the metal was destined for somewhere in western Canada as well.

[devonb]

Originally Posted by mersar

A lot of the material will be processed fairly quickly, though some things they may just store until the market recovers (the market for recycling is very cyclic, as the largest buyer of bulk quantities of recycled product is China, mostly paper and plastic, and they tend to flip between where they buy quite a lot, but fortunately if you have space you could make a nice profit if you hold on). A lot of the material though from Calgary supposedly will be used by local companies, I recall hearing something about one of the major shingle manufacturers being the destination for a lot of the paper and the metal was destined for somewhere in western Canada as well.

Interestingly, environmentalists are fairly split on the recycling programs in N.A. I was reading that some environmentalists feel we should be burying (essentially storing) plastics until a better process is developed. I guess the pollution from the recycling is pretty huge, not to mention shipping of the materials. There are companies here that recycle and supposedly do it with less pollution, but they can't pay the price that China has been offering.

[Rusty van Reddick]

I'm flummoxed about where to put my bin (we're supposed to get ours this week)- the website says you need 1' of clearance so I can't put it in the gate opening next to where our garbage cans are, can't put it in the alley because there is litterally zero room, can't put it in front because our garbage is picked up in the alley, doubt I can put it in the parking pad because the ground isn't level and that's several feet away from where garbage is picked up...

[youngregina]

cant put it in the bedroom because that's where my bed is.. argh. Seriously though if its just a bin that people pick up, then im sure whomever's offering the service wouldnt mind walking the extra foot or two to get it. If it's truck pick up, where a machine picks it up then maybe ask your neighbor if they wouldn't mind having it next to theirs.

[mersar]

It is an automated truck that does the pick up. Problem with putting it by the neighbors is it may be that only one of them gets picked up (similar to the situation we have here with our garbage, we ended up moving where we put our bin as half the time they wouldn't pick it up as they thought the neighbor was putting out more than what he was allowed as the bins were relatively close (about 5 feet apart). Whether the recycling pickup would be that picky is the question especially with the bins being city provided

[youngregina]

How-so is your water treatment the BEST? What regulations are in place and what process does the waste water of the city of Calgary go through?

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by youngregina

How-so is your water treatment the BEST? What regulations are in place and what process does the waste water of the city of Calgary go through?

details are page 25
Highlights:
Only major city in the world with complete tertiary treatment of ALL waste water releases including full UV treatment of ALL waste water.
100 % complete seperation of sewage and storm system infrastructures.
Over 50% primary treatment on storm sewage system; Edmonton is the only other Canadian city to provide treatment on storm system outflows.
Calgary's newest treatment plant - Pine Creek - is considered the most advanced in the world with "double" tertiary treatment involving both UV and O3. (cost is pushing over 500 Million)
According to Ecojustice, Calgary and Edmonton (and Whislter) are the only cities in Canada that return waste water to the environment cleaner than when it was extracted.

BTW, Regina does has a good waste water treatment system, though it doesn't address storm runoff, and as of 2008, it's UV system has been running at less than 100% and it doesn't provide for O3 treatment.

[freeweed]

Serious question: what are people supposed to do with the crazy winds here? I've seen things much heavier than your average recycling bin blowing all over my neighbourhood. Unless I load the thing completely full, which is unlikely unless I leave it to collect for weeks (ugh) - I just don't produce 1/5th as much garbage as most people.

I'm so very looking forward to no-sort recycling - saw it in Oregon and said "FINALLY - someone figured out how to do recycling!". But I'm not sure if I'll have to tie a cinder block to my bin, or what.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by youngregina

How-so is your water treatment the BEST? What regulations are in place and what process does the waste water of the city of Calgary go through?

Would you swim downstream of where your wastewater is dumped? Honest question, I have no idea where sewage is released in Regina.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Would you swim downstream of where your wastewater is dumped? Honest question, I have no idea where sewage is released in Regina.

Screw that!! In 2006 at the official opening of the full on tertiary treatment process at the Bonnybrook plant, the head of Calgary Waste water services (can't remember his name) put a glass in the out flows and DRANK from it. I dare anyone anywhere else to try that.

BTW, he did say the water tasted okay but kinda stank. Tests showed that the "bad" things in the water were well below national limits (and the levels in the river prior to initial treatment) though some organics were a bit high, hence the smell/taste.

[wmp.dll]

I live in the SW (Glamorgan specifically) and have not received my blue bin yet. I look forward to it though.

[shreddog]

I don't mean to pick on Vancouver, but as an example to how far Calgary has gone towards processing ALL waste water, Vancouver still releases more untreatment human effluent into the ocean than Calgary's release of untreated RAIN water into the Bow. Think about that, Calgary releases a lower volume of untreated rain water into the environment than Vancouver does of shit water.

BTW, rain water in our cities carries all kinds of things ranging from oils and heavy metals from our cars to dog shit and fertilizars. Since Calgary is part of a semi-arid environment it has historically focused a lot of its energy - and cash - into making sure that the water we send to Sask is clean and useable!

[craneSpotter]

Originally Posted by shreddog

I don't mean to pick on Vancouver, but as an example to how far Calgary has gone towards processing ALL waste water, Vancouver still releases more untreatment human effluent into the ocean than Calgary's release of untreated RAIN water into the Bow. Think about that, Calgary releases a lower volume of untreated rain water into the environment than Vancouver does of shit water.

BTW, rain water in our cities carries all kinds of things ranging from oils and heavy metals from our cars to dog shit and fertilizars. Since Calgary is part of a semi-arid environment it has historically focused a lot of its energy - and cash - into making sure that the water we send to Sask is clean and useable!

Well, to be fair, Calgary HAS to treat their wastewater to higher standards than most other cities.

Why? Because the Bow is a relatively small river (volume) and has a limited ability to assimilate wastewater plant effluent without seriously reducing downstream water quality. So the city had to set very high treament standards to meet environmental requirements (for concentrations). But kudos! They did a good job of what they had to do.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by craneSpotter

Well, to be fair, Calgary HAS to treat their wastewater to higher standards than most other cities.

Why? Because the Bow is a relatively small river (volume) and has a limited ability to assimilate wastewater plant effluent without seriously reducing downstream water quality. So the city had to set very high treament standards to meet environmental requirements (for concentrations). But kudos! They did a good job of what they had to do.

Err.. while other cities just piss off their downstream neighbours.

There's having to do something, and then there's doing extra to be nice. Believe me, Calgary could do a lot less treatment and just tell smaller centres downstream to sod off - it's how most large Canadian cities behave. Don't kid yourself, volume or not, downstream of many Canadian cities is highly unpleasant.

Unless there's some Alberta-specific legislation that requires it, in which case kudos to the province.

[Jimby]

Strathmore is putting untreated waste in to the Bow. To be allowed to do that, they had to agree to supply bottled water for the Siksika Nation downstream.

[mersar]

Originally Posted by Jimby

Strathmore is putting untreated waste in to the Bow. To be allowed to do that, they had to agree to supply bottled water for the Siksika Nation downstream.

Yeah, I'd heard of that before.

Whereas in Cochrane we were actively discouraged from even putting treated wastewater into the Bow by the city, instead we now pipe it all into Calgary and let them treat it. On the upside, we never have to worry about building a new treatment plant, rather just upgrading the pipe and pump stations.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by Jimby

Strathmore is putting untreated waste in to the Bow. To be allowed to do that, they had to agree to supply bottled water for the Siksika Nation downstream.

NO!!!!

Strathmore treats it's sewage better than just about every city in Canada. It recently completed a full upgrade to its treatment facility to provide for complete secondary treatment of all effluent with enough capacity to support a town of 50K people (we can debate the value of that decision elsewhere).

The issue was not that it ever wanted to release raw sewage (Alberta Environment would never allow that - Alberta has the strictest water/effluent release laws in Canada) but rather where in the Bow water system the town was going to release its treated effluent. The town initiallly wanted to have the outflow in a side channel of the river somewhat close to intakes near the reserve - not the best original decision. Eventually, the outflow was moved into a main channel of the river far from any intakes and there has been no problems ever since.

Again, Alberta has the strictest laws in Canada regarding the treatment and release of waste water. Raw sewage release would never be allowed for Strathmore.

BTW, I am not aware of any situation with the town providing bottle water - do you have a link as I am curious??