Calgary recycles

[Vascilli]

I wonder how long it'll be before the grey market pops up.

[MalcolmTucker]

^ Grey market for what? Not much in Canada is grey market any more, only really US satellite if you actually pay for it. Other than that, most products and services are pretty above board.

[mooky]

By grey market do you mean people raiding the blue bins for the most valuable commodities like paper, cardboard and larger scraps of solid metals? I've heard of such things before but I don't know how big the market for such things is or if there will be a problem with it.

If there isn't a bylaw in place, there should be which makes the contents property of the city once the blue bins reach the curb, to help prevent "raiding"

[Vascilli]

I'm envisioning people trying to profit off any loopholes, raiding included.

[lubicon]

Speaking of recycling, how many of you have recyccling programs at work? I don't mean cans, bottles etc, but rather paper, cardboard etc. My old employer had a program but not where I work now. I was kind of surprised when we moved into our new offices that the building didn't have a paper recyclig program for all the tenants. We throw a lot of paper products into the trash needlessly.

[mersar]

We do paper around the U of C. Random bins around in the public areas, as well as bins in all copier rooms, most department/faculty front offices and some staff offices.

I know the school my dad works at in Cochrane has bought bins this past year for recycling plastic, in addition to the paper and pop cans/bottles they were already collecting. Usually a large garbage bag a week of plastic from what he's mentioned, along with the around 3 tonnes of paper a month (they fill a standard square dumpster twice a month with just paper and cardboard). In terms of the pop cans, I believe he said that he alone has taken in something like 40,000 containers to the depot this school year so far and theres 1 other group who also collects cans from the school.

[mooky]

Our buildign does cardboard recycling, and our company does paper recycling through a third party for security (shredding).

Our company also was nice enough to start up last year recylcing other materials by hiring Calgary Condo Recycling to do kitchen containers, plastics, etc.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Speaking of recycling, how many of you have recyccling programs at work? I don't mean cans, bottles etc, but rather paper, cardboard etc. My old employer had a program but not where I work now. I was kind of surprised when we moved into our new offices that the building didn't have a paper recyclig program for all the tenants. We throw a lot of paper products into the trash needlessly.

Landfilling paper and cardboard is carbon sequestration.

Yes, I'm being serious.

[mooky]

How so? I was always under the assumption that reprocessing office/newspaper was cheaper overall , used less water, and required less electricity then turning a raw tree into pulp and paper. Do you have any articles on this?

[Shylo]

From an article in the Herald today,
"Around 150 tonnes were picked up Tuesday, Magdich said, just a small fraction of the 40,000 tonnes the city is hoping to divert annually from its landfills thanks to the new program."

Unless that's an abnormally high amount because the program is new and people are enthusiastic; 150 per day x 4 pickup days a week x 52 weeks a year x 4 city quadrants = 124,800 tonnes, or over three times what they are hoping for!

[mersar]

I'd say its abnormally high just due to the fact its the first week and most people probably have saved up at least several weeks worth knowing that it was starting. Once we get a week or two in the quantities per week will likely drop to a lower level that will be more consistent week to week.

[frinkprof]

Yup. It's also spring cleaning time. I'm hardly an expert, I would guess that the two busiest times for trash/recycling pickup are the week after Christmas and around this time when people do spring cleaning.

[AirGuitarChampion]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Yup. It's also spring cleaning time. I'm hardly an expert, I would guess that the two busiest times for trash/recycling pickup are the week after Christmas and around this time when people do spring cleaning.

Kinda what happened to me. Once I knew the blue bins were coming I stopped going to the green parking lot bins and created a stockpile.

First time I filled the blue bin I was surprised how much you can get in it. The backlog I created will be able to go out next week, beyond that the blue bin has way more capacity than I'd need for weekly pickup. Probably just keep filling it and put it out bi-weekly or something.

The service was pretty seamless. I filled it, put it out, and when I came home it was empty. I guess you can't ask for much more than that! At $8/month it's cheaper time wise than two trips that I would normally take a month to the parking lot bins. And now they're doing plastic which I'm really happy about.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by AirGuitarChampion

the blue bin has way more capacity than I'd need for weekly pickup. Probably just keep filling it and put it out bi-weekly or something.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I just don't run a high-trash household. We're a one-bag-per-week family at most.

In some municipalities, they won't pick up your garbage unless you have your recycling bin out, with stuff in it - to "encourage" recycling, ie: stop people from just bagging recyclables. It'd be a huge pain in the ass for me because from what I've estimated, I can easily go a month or two before filling one of the new bins.

Not drinking bottled/canned beverages and not eating a ton of canned or otherwise pre-packaged food means you don't have much recycling on a weekly basis. When I stopped subscribing to the newspaper years ago that was another huge amount.

Maybe I'll have to eat even more takeout pizza to compensate.

[srperrycgy]

I won't have access to the Blue Carts as my apt. building has more than 4 units (8). I picked up my car rental today and drove over to Spruce Cliff to dump off my recycling. It's nice not to have to sort into individual bins like before.

[lubicon]

I've noticed a few homeless people carting the new bins around. They hold a ton of stuff so that will make their lives easier. Good to see some resourcefullness.

ANd holy crap, I know people are doing their yards at this time of year but you should see the amount of garbage bags some houses are putting out. We did our yard and this week i put out 2 bags of grass clippings and garbage. My neighbor across the street had 16 bags at the end of his driveway.

[freeweed]

People still throw out grass clippings? That's what a mulching blade is for!

I'm rather excited about my blue cart. Already used it for a week and it still has plenty of room, and I think we ended up with less than 1/4 of the normal garbage on the curb.

[lubicon]

The only grass that goes in teh garbage at my place is from when I power rake in the spring. After that it goes into the composter.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by lubicon

The only grass that goes in teh garbage at my place is from when I power rake in the spring. After that it goes into the composter.

I guess I should be happy, at least you're not burning it.

Yes, I'm re-opening that chestnut. I figure less than 10 days before the sociopaths out there begin their annual summer pollution.

Hey, now that we have the Local format, can we start up a screaming fit^W^ I mean discussion thread about backyard firepits?

[lubicon]

I remember the good old days growing up, where we burned not only our grass, wood etc. but also all our garbage. Those were the days!!