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The Nechako Waste Reduction Initiative regularly writes and submits articles to the local newspaper on various recycling and waste reduction topics. Scroll down for all our articles. Click on the article title to view the entire article.

A season for giving, not for discarding

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Published in the Omineca Express. December 14, 2010

There are lots of things consumers can do to turn this holiday season into their greenest ever. The list below shows just how easy it is!

Give a Gift Card. More than two-thirds of consumers purchase at least one gift card as a holiday present for a loved one. They're appreciated, they never expire, and they require no fancy gift-wrapping.

Say 'Happy Holidays' Over the Phone or Internet. An estimated 2.6 billion holiday cards are sold each year in the United States alone, enough to fill a football field 10 stores high. If every family reduced their mailing list by just one card, the nation would save 50,000 cubic yards of paper. If you have Internet access, consider sending electronic holiday cards this year. Check the selection at commercial sites like hallmark.com, bluemountain.com, or 123christmascards.com. You can also check charitable support groups like care2.com, or conservation groups like The Nature Conservancy.

Check Your Tire Pressure. Going to grandma's house for a holiday dinner? Before your trip, make sure tires are properly inflated to increase fuel economy and drive safely. A reduction of one gallon of gasoline used by every U.S. household this holiday season, for instance, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 million tons.

Use Reusable Bags. Headed out to the mall for some holiday shopping? Take along a reusable shopping bag and you'll help reduce the number of single-use, disposable bags distributed by retailers.

Drive Smart. Plan your holiday shopping outings on a map or a GPS unit to determine the most efficient driving route—you'll drive fewer kilometers, reduce greenhouse emissions, and spend less when you fill up at the pump.

Repurpose Old Holiday Cards. Donate your old cards to a nursery or day care center for arts and crafts projects. Or, cut up cards to be used as gift tags, bookmarks, greeting cards, place mats, or decorations. Used cards, especially those with large pictures to cut out, can also be used as decorations. Just put a hole at the top of the card and knot a piece of string or lace through the hole to hang on next year's Christmas tree, door handles, etc.

Buy Foods in Bulk & Compost the Leftovers. Consider buying food and holiday snacks in bulk to reduce packaging waste. Be sure to compost the leftovers—the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates nearly 95 billion pounds of edible food, or 27 percent of the U.S. food supply, end up being wasted each year.

Buy Local. Look for locally grown products for your holiday meal—it's estimated the ingredients for the average U.S. meal travel 1,200 miles by the time they are served. Choosing food products that are in season, and not flown in from a tropical climate, is better for the environment. Consider products from a local farmers' market or store.

Recycle That Tree. Remember to recycle trees locally or turn them into mulch for water conservation and weed control in the garden. Reuse branches to make colourful holiday wreaths and separate the pine needles from tree branches to create tree-scented sachet bags. Or, consider an artificial tree or a "living" tree that can be replanted in the yard.

Make Room for New Gadgets & Toys. Unwanted cell phones may be donated or recycled. Outgrown toys, clothes and furniture may be donated to charitable groups. Thrift stores like Neighbour Link are always looking for donated items.

Save on Gift Wrap. Save and reuse gift wrapping paper from previous years, or make some from butcher paper, reused brown paper bags, newspapers, and fabric. Shop for recycled-content holiday wrapping paper, or wrapping paper sold by charity groups that raise funds to preserve rain forests. Thrift shops often have good prices on leftover holiday wrapping paper.

Get Off the Mailing List. Overwhelmed with holiday catalogs received in the mail? Request to have your name/address removed from mailing lists by contacting the Canadian Direct Marketing Association. Contact our local post office if you no longer wish to receive ad mail.

Buy Reusable Batteries. About 40 percent of all battery sales occur during the holiday season. In 2006 alone, more than 40 billion single-use batteries were sold worldwide. Consider purchasing rechargeable batteries instead; they can be used again and again.

Recycle Packing Peanuts. Check with a shipping store to see if they will accept foam peanuts for recycling.

Composting in Vanderhoof

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By Alan Dudley. August 24, 2010

One of their most important ongoing initiatives is to promote composting (bacteria, fungi, worms and other organisms living in the soil and air transform dead plants, leaves, etc into a rich dark material called humus or compost). There are two main types of composting, backyard composting and vermicomposting.

In Vanderhoof, there is a community 'backyard' compost site. Branches smaller than 6 cm in diameter, brush and grass clippings can be left at the Vanderhoof Compost Site, located next to the baseball fields at the end of Recreation Road. Composted soil is available for free at the site.

A study in 2009 commissioned by The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako found that 32% of the waste in the transfer stations represents compostable organic material, comprised of approximately 12% yard waste, 17% food waste, and 3% other waste. So, much of the yard waste produced in the Vanderhoof area can be composted.

Starting composting is easy. Buy or build a pest/rodent-resistant bin. Add carbon-rich materials (e.g. leaves, sawdust, paper) and nitrogen-rich materials (e.g. yard clippings, food waste). Composting recipe includes keeping it moist, adding air (turn the compost weekly), stirring, and chopping new material into small pieces. Follow this recipe, and your compost will be ready in 4-24 months.

At the Exhibition, a vermicomposting display was featured. Vermicomposting is composting with worms and is a good method of disposing of kitchen scraps. Also needed are shredded paper, leaves and sand. Over the course of 30-90 days, worm castings are produced, which are a rich fertilizer for lawns and indoor & outdoor plants.

Thank you to Vanderhoof & Districts Co-operative Association for their kind donation of a composter for our draw at the exhibition.

The NWRI's counterpart in Prince George is the Recycling and Action Planning Society which operates a compost demonstration garden, with a variety of composters, which is located next to Fort George Park. Visit REAPS' website, to learn in detail how to compost and for information on upcoming composting courses.

Cardboard & Mixed Paper Recycling in Vanderhoof

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By . DATE

One of the NWRI's first initiatives was to partner with the Vanderhoof & Districts Co-operative Association (Co-op) to locate, next to the Co-op Grocery Store, a bin for mixed paper and another for cardboard. Starting once a week and now twice weekly, Nechako Valley Community Services Society (NVCSS) clients, using the Co-op's new bailing machine, are employed to compact the cardboard into large bails, which are stored on Co-op property.

When a truckload quantity of cardboard bails has been accumulated, they are loaded onto a flatbed truck and shipped to Metro Waste Paper Recovery Inc.'s (www.metrowaste.com) warehouse and processing facility in Prince George. The mixed paper is shipped and bailed (using a giant bailing machine) also at the site, which formerly housed a large sawmill. Both types of recycled paper products are then trucked to the Lower Mainland, and then sold to domestic and international customers for reprocessing into a variety of paper products. Incidentally, cardboard commands a considerably higher price than mixed paper.

The mixed paper bin is to be used for household mixed waste fibre (newspapers, magazines, junk mail, cereal boxes, telephone directories). Anything else, such as plastic wrapping, garbage bags, etc, is a contaminant.

Metro Waste's Prince George Sales Coordinator, Karleen Hamilton, says that inspections of each mixed paper bin from Vanderhoof have been satisfactory with no problems of contamination. Her positive feedback might suggest that our local residents do not put anything but paper products into the mixed paper bin, but that is not the case. A wide variety of contaminants has been found, such as, among others: plastic products (including bags containing shredded paper), pop cans, milk jugs, garbage and corrugated cardboard.

Each day, on a rotational basis, a dedicated NWRI volunteer inspects the bins and will pull out the contaminants and put them in their proper place. Sometimes, the keen volunteer will even climb into a bin to fetch the contaminant, but that is discouraged!

The cardboard bin is solely for corrugated cardboard, except cardboard that is waxed, such as boxes used for shipping fruit and vegetables. Waxed boxes should be re-used, as they are not recyclable. And, the cardboard needs to be flattened. Recently, a contributor turned the just-emptied bin into a full bin in a matter of minutes with his deposit of 90 boxes, all unflattened! This made it difficult and frustrating for other residents to find room for their cardboard. So, using the power of the Internet, the word went out that there were boxes available and some were picked-up for re-use, thereby creating room in the bin.

While the Co-op's generous contribution of its property and equipment for the mixed paper and cardboard bins is very much appreciated by our community, the NWRI's goal is to have a permanent and convenient Resource Recovery Park where a variety of products can be recycled or made available for re-use.

Waste Reduction Week in Canada: October 18-24

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By . DATE

Since 2001, National Waste Reduction Week in Canada (WRW) has been organized by a coalition of non-government, not-for-profit environment groups, and from each of the 13 participating provincial and territorial jurisdictions across Canada. WRW is currently held the third week of October each year.

The success of the WRW in Canada program continues to grow with the number of participants in all three targeted audiences – schools, local governments and small to medium-sized businesses – more than doubling in the last six years alone.

The District of Vanderhoof is joining many other towns and cities across Canada in proclaiming October 18-24th Waste Reduction Week in Vanderhoof. What is waste? The Oxford English Dictionary defines waste as: "eliminated or discarded as no longer useful or required." We need to think of items that we would otherwise discard as: "resources that we conserve, reuse or recycle to protect our environment."

If we can reduce the amount of waste that is produced in the first instance, we are conserving resources and limiting the need to reuse or recycle. Canadians produce more than 31 million tonnes of waste annually; that's 2.7 kgs per person per day. In perspective, that's the same volume of waste being generated as piling up 31 million average family cars. Nearly 40% of this waste is generated at home, with the remainder coming from commercial, industrial, construction and demolition sources. Of the waste we are generating, we are diverting less than 25%.

Most of our waste is buried in landfills. For waste to decompose in a healthy environment, such as your compost pile, it requires air and water. These are not present deep in the landfill, and as the waste slowly decomposes and reacts with what is around it, it can produce a leachate which may end up in our groundwater system, not to mention creating greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. In properly managed landfills, leachate is collected and treated along with greenhouse gases. According to Environment Canada, landfill sites account for 38% of Canada's total methane emissions.

It is up to each of us as individuals, communities, schools or businesses to consider what we are throwing away and the environmental impact this is causing. We need to look for alternatives that will promote waste reduction and help to protect our environment.

For more information on waste or Waste Reduction Week, go to wrwcanada.com/resources. Here you will find information and ideas to reduce consumption and make the most out of our natural resources by re-using and recycling.

Source: Waste Reduction Week Canada

Litterless Lunches

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By Kathy Russell & Alan Dudley. DATE

Last week was National Waste Reduction Week in Canada. As mentioned, all of us need to look for alternatives that will promote waste reduction and help to protect our environment. This includes parents and children and begins right at home when making and packaging our children’s lunches. According to wastefreelunches.org, the average American school-age child who brings daily a disposable lunch will generate over 30 kg of waste annually! If most children in a given school are bringing a disposable lunch, that’s a huge amount of unnecessary waste.

And, there is a cost to the convenience of disposable lunches – an average cost of $4.02/day for disposable lunches compared to $2.65/day on average for a litterless lunch – resulting in a difference of $1.37 per school day or $246 per year.

In a recent Globe & Mail article, Jean Folger of Investopedia.com, provided a compelling financial reasoning for buying food and beverages in bulk and sending them in reusable containers. She calculates that making small changes such as buying and preparing: cheese & crackers, yogurt, sandwiches, fruit, and juices from bulk can result in savings of up to $1,000 annually! And, she says, that money could instead be invested in a child’s RESP with its corresponding multiplier effect through the 20% government grant and accruing interest.

Encouraging parents to prepare and send litterless lunches often starts with school programs. The litterless lunches at Vanderhoof-area schools are short campaigns when the school or a particular classroom challenges the students to bring a litterless lunch. It is usually done in conjunction with something like Pitch-In Week, or especially Earth Day. At the elementary schools, classrooms have challenges to see who produces the least amount of garbage-they decide by weighing their garbage at the end of lunchtime, and they often have vermicomposting in their classrooms.

At NVSS, periodically, a litterless lunch campaign is announced. Students and their staff mentors check in the small auditorium or hallways for students using recyclable containers and give those students tickets to enter a draw. The most recent campaign was in conjunction with Waste Reduction Week. Prizes this year included two $5 certificates for The Bean, and a movie pass at the Grand Reo Theatre. The campaign is to promote awareness about a simple way to reduce waste, and just to give students something to consider about the environment.

School litterless lunch campaigns can also be district-wide. For example, in Whitehorse, YT, there5 is a city-wide contest taking place from October 15th to November 2nd. Any school class is eligible to participate to bring the least amount of litter. Categories include: garbage-free lunch for 15 points (nothing leftover except compost and empty reusable containers), recyclable lunch for 10 points (only sorted recyclables left), and landfill lunch for 0 points (leftovers include plastics, single-use wrappers, wax paper that are garbage). The class with the most points, pro-rated per class size, is declared the winner. Last year, experiential prizes were awarded: a day canoe trip, a visit to a chocolate factory, a visit to a bakery to understand how bread is made, and a tour of the local airport’s fire-fighting facilities.

Even businesses have been started to promote and sell litterless lunch products. For instance, a green-minded mother of two in Oakville, ON started www.litterlesslunch.ca. She provides a range of “gunk free, litter free” products related to children’s lunches. Closer to home, www.lavishandlime.com, offering a boutique of green-focused products, including their “waste-free lunch essentials,” was started by eco-minded parents of two in West Vancouver. Tupperware representatives are selling popular litterless lunch kits. And, look for innovative, locally-made, litterless lunch kits at this season’s Christmas craft fairs.

To learn more about the growing social phenomenon of litterless or waste free lunches, particularly as it relates to our children’s lunches, go to www.wastefreelunches.org The site offers everything from lunch kits, guidance, flyers & pamphlets, links to related sites, and success stories.

Recycling Milk Containers

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By . DATE

Did you know that there is a wide variety of milk containers that are fully recyclable in Vanderhoof?

Who is behind the milk containers recycling program? The British Columbia Dairy Council is the trade association for the province's dairy processors – the companies that convert raw milk into finished dairy products. The recycling program is operated under contract for the BC Dairy Council by Encorp Pacific (Canada), the largest private sector product stewardship agency in B.C.

In Vanderhoof, the NVSS Bottle Depot, an Encorp Pacific depot, accepts the following containers: plastic milk jugs, polycoat (gabletop) cartons, plastic single serve cups, and asceptic cartons. Containers being returned need to be rinsed, crushed and cap less. Although caps need to be removed, they, too, are recycled.

When purchasing these products, the consumer doesn't have to pay a deposit; therefore, there's no refund made. However, there is the assurance that these plastics and cartons will be recycled instead of being wasted in our rapidly-filling landfill site.

At Encorp Pacific depots, the return rate is estimated to be just 6% for plastic milk jugs and 10% for milk cartons, but up to 85% when combined with curbside recycling (Source: M.E. Harvey & Associates, 2010). After they are baled in Prince George and shipped to the Lower Mainland, here's what happens to the returned milk containers: (Source: M.E. Harvey & Associates, 2010).

High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Plastic – By volume, 2 and 4 litre plastic milk jugs account for the majority of fresh milk sales. The recovered material is cleaned and processed into pellet form for resale in commodity markets. A typical use for this material is in new, non-food, containers, plastic formed products, furniture and toys.

Gable top (polycoat) & Aseptic (sterilized) Cartons – The largest component material in this type of carton is high quality paper fibre. Collected containers are shipped to paper recycling mills which extract the fibre for use in new products such as cardboard, linerboard, household tissue products and even fine writing papers. The small amount of residual polyethylene can be screened off for use in other plastic and composite materials.

Single Serve Milk Cups – The container consists of a plastic cup with a peel off foil lid. The type of plastic used in the cups requires that they be kept separate from milk jugs. The plastic is blended with other types for use in a wide variety of new plastic products.

The NWRI is researching ideas for recycling other types of plastics. For instance, a firm in Maple Ridge, Worldwide Plastic2Fuel Corp., hopes to license its technology to process more difficult types of plastics (#3 to #7) than plastic milk containers (#2) into synthetic fuels such as: diesel, crude oil, kerosene, heating oil, and others.

A recurring suggestion for increasing the recycling rate for milk containers is to charge consumers a deposit at point-of-sale. In Alberta, a deposit program for some milk containers began in June, 2009, and for all milk containers in November, 2009 (<1 litre 10¢, >1 litre 25¢). The return rate increased dramatically after the deposit program began, especially for milk cartons, with up to three times more cartons being returned. Overall, Alberta presently has the largest beverage container recycling deposit program scope in the world (Source: Meyers Norris Penny, 2010).

So, the NWRI encourages local consumers to voluntarily keep milk containers out of the landfill by returning them to the NVSS Bottle Depot. If you have questions about recycling milk containers, please call the bottle depot at 250-567-4059 and ask or drop by in person during its hours of operation: Monday, Tuesday and Friday (11 am to 5 pm) and Saturday (10 am to 5 pm).

40 Ways to Green Your Business

Everyone involved in office space -- owners and property managers as well as tenant office managers and employees -- has a shared responsibility for reducing the environmental impact of our business activities.

In commemoration of Earth Day's 40th anniversary, here are 40 ways to make the office a greener place to work:

Owners

1.   Include reasonable sustainability provisions in standard lease agreements, and try to accommodate tenants with their own green criteria.
2.   Require your management staff to follow sustainable procedures as much as possible, and to report on what they are doing.
3.   Ask your property manager and other service providers what steps their organization is taking to be sustainable, including what they ask their own vendors, to ensure the sustainability of your supply chain.
4.   Keep current on public policy mandates regarding green buildings, including tax credits and other incentives as well as building codes and other requirements.
5    Be knowledgeable of costs and financing alternatives relating to energy and sustainability improvements, and weigh these factors against potential financial benefits.
6.   Conduct a complete commissioning of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems once every three years to ensure they operate as they were designed to do.
7. Install bike racks to encourage emission-free commuting.
8.   Institute a building-wide recycling program, and if possible, establish an area for sorting recyclables before they leave the building.
9.   Budget for tenant sub-metering, subject to applicable laws and lease agreements.
10. Invest in roofing materials that reduce heat absorption by using highly reflective materials or vegetation.

Property Managers

11. Replace traditional base building light bulbs with high efficiency/low mercury lighting.
12. Install carbon dioxide detectors to ensure enough fresh air is circulating.
13. Don't over-ventilate: It's important to have enough fresh air, but outside air must be heated or cooled to inside temperatures, increasing energy use.
14. Follow a consistent schedule of checking and replacing filters.
15. Sub-meter equipment for better data on where energy is being used, so that when there is an unexpected rise in energy, the problem can be isolated more easily.
16. Use cleaning supplies and restroom paper products that meet EPA's Environmentally Preferred Purchasing guidelines or are certified by organizations such as Green Seal
17. Ensure that parking-lot lights are shielded to focus light on the ground instead into the sky or neighboring properties, avoiding light pollution.
18. Follow integrated pest management principles that pose the least risk to people and the environment at the most economical cost.
19. Utilize high-efficiency irrigation technologies.
20. Work with municipalities to permit motion-sensitive lighting in emergency stairwells.

Office Managers

21. Set office copier defaults to print on both sides of paper to reduce paper waste.
22. Post recycling receptacles in central locations as well as at individual desks.
23. Use motion detectors to control lighting in storage and other rooms that are used infrequently.
24. Install task lighting at employee workstations so that late workers do not need full lighting throughout the department.
25. Consider recycled and recyclable materials when renovating space or replacing furniture.
26. Require interior build-out contractors to follow sustainable practices, particularly in ensuring the air quality of adjoining areas where employees are working.
27. Use low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paint and formaldehyde-free furniture and carpet in offices to ensure that air quality is not compromised.
28. Investigate the installation of software that automatically turns off copiers and printers at a certain time, and make sure standby modes are set correctly.
29. Consider programs that allow employees to work from home part of the time, reducing carbon emissions from commuting and potentially limiting space needed per employee, thus reducing the amount of space to heat and cool.
30. Design space to maximize penetration of natural light into your space.

Employees

31. Bring lunch from home to reduce cafeteria and restaurant waste.
32. Print documents only when necessary, and use double-sided printing when possible.
33. Learn which plastic lunch items are and are not recyclable, and wash food particles from recyclable containers before depositing
34. Use a coffee mug and reusable water bottle instead of paper cups and disposable plastic bottles.
35. Turn off your computer at night and unplug the adaptor—even an idle adaptor draws energy.
36. Bring your laptop to meetings to avoid printing out presentation materials.
37. When working late, use task lighting at your desk instead of lighting an entire floor.
38. Take mass transit or carpool to work if possible; or better yet, walk or ride a bicycle if you live close enough to the office.
39. Place plants in your office space to help absorb indoor pollution.
40. Turn out conference room lights when meetings are over.

If each person does his or her part, these practices will greatly reduce costs for everyone and ensure a healthier, happier workplace as well as helping the environment.