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. _v, i tf x»7 n kJ ir R>1 3 frf ^ A <y%/ J$^y@W M F P/14 ! tf 1B f|| ^r>u' • Wednesday, February 24, 1999 COMMUNITY CALENDAR • LIFESTYLES • SPORTS • COMMUNITY CORRESPONDENCE • TV LISTINGS Â Look Beyond Those Green Bags and Bufi.jj TRASH by Jennifer Stone Staff Writer Ever wonder what happens to your garbage after you leave it at the curb? Do you ever think about just where and how your recyclables are recycled? It turns out it's not such a mystery. Garbage heads east, while recycling material begins its odyssey at a transfer station in Whitby. Located at the south end of Darlington-Clarke Townline is the Canadian Waste Management site. All of the garbage picked up from Clarington curbs winds up there, on land once owned by the Ministry of Transportation. Its landmark landmark "silo" building was formerly part of the Highway 401 maintenance depot between Bowmanville and Newcastle. "All of the garbage in the municipality is picked up between Tuesday and Friday," says Ann Dreslinski, office manager at the site. "It's brought to the dome, dumped, put in a compactor, and put in trucks that go to Napanee." The garbage picked up from your curb travels to Napanee (to a site also'owned by Canadian Waste Management) Dreslinski. within one day, says s MAKING A COMEBACK -- The newspaper you are holding today could be re-processed and back on your doorstep in just two weeks, thanks to the wonders of recycling BOWMANVILLE LEADS TRASH PARADE -- When it comes to garbage pickup, Bowmanville contributes the most trash. It accounts for about 90 metric tonnes every Tuesday. Bowmanville is also Clarington's largest urban centre. Courtice is a close second in garbage production, production, with 80 metric tonnes collected collected each Wednesday. Newcastle, Orono and some rural routes arc good for about 45 tonnes on Thursdays. About 40 tonnes arc collected from the remaining rural areas on Fridays. IN TRANSIT -- The garbage picked up at your curb goes to a site in Napanee owned by Canadian Waste Management. It is put in a compactor at a transfer station at the south end of the Darlington-Clarke Townline (just cast of Bowmanville) before being loaded onto trucks for shipment to Napanee. RECYCLABLES GO WEST -- While garbage is shipped cast to Napanee, material that is recyclable recyclable goes to Durham Region's recycling centre in Whitby. About six different •companies recycle Durham's paper, cardboard, aluminum aluminum cans, steel cans, plastics coded with a "I" and glass. NEED AN EXTRA BLUE BOX? -- Are you having trouble sorting all those recyclable products? products? An extra blue box may be the answer. They're available for $4 from Miller Waste Systems, An extra box lets you put paper in one container, with cans and bottles in another. HEAVY LOAD -- Each worker is responsible for lifting 20 tonnes of garbage in a typical day's curb- side collection, It takes a strong person to manage the lifting and throwing. | RECELE | !, xumm- i \ fti iftiliillt f • f WÊÊÊ ■ • ' â RECYCLING RIGHT-- Daven Whitney and Eric Britton take special care with recycling duties at Dr. Ross Tilley School in Bowmanville. According to the Region's Works Department, area rccyclcrs put very few non- recyclablc items in blue boxes. The biggest problem is plastic bags -- they contaminate the load. Recycle Right! 'l'he Region of Durham's Works Department asks residents to follow these tips to Recycle Right: Newspapers, Inserts, Magazines, Junk Mail, Envelopes, Paperbacks and Telephone Books: Place loose in the bottom of the Blue Box, Glass Bottles and Jars: Rinse, remove lids and caps, and place loose in the blue box on top of papers, Plastic Containers Coded with a 1: Check the code and include only plastic containers with a "I" inside the recycling.symbol. (The "1" is most often found on the bottom of the container.) Remove all lids and caps, and rinse. These items can be placed loose on top of papers. Metal Food and Beverage Containers and Aluminum Pie Plates: Rinse, Place lids inside the cans and pinch closed to trap the lid, Place loose in Blue Box on top of papers. Boxboard and Cardboard: Include items such as: cereal, tissue and pizza boxes; paper towel rolls; etc. Remove food residues from liners and handles. Bundle the items to the side of a Blue Box, and place the bundle beside your recycling box. Ensure you don't include egg cartons, milk cartons, or juice cartons. cartons. The Region also asks residents not to place recyclable recyclable materials in plastic bags. The bags contaminate contaminate the load, and have to be sorted out when they arrive at the transfer station. For more information on Recycling Right in Durham, call (905) 668-7721 or 1-800-372-1103. Huge quantities of refuse are collected in the municipality each week. Dreslinski says the largest amount comes out of Bowmanville on Tuesdays when about 90 metric tonnes are picked up. Courtice is a close second -- 80 tonnes arc collected collected there on Wednesdays. Newcastle, Orono and some of the rural routes are good for about 45 tonnes on Thursdays. Each Friday, garbage from the rest of the municipality is picked up. Though the route is much longer than any of the others, only about 40 tonnes are averaged on the Friday route. Dreslinski says the public often forgets about the hard work put in by the collectors. "One guy is responsible for lifting 20 tonnes of garbage" on any given day, says Dreslinski, adding it takes a strong person to manage the lifting and throwing. About 15 "extremely hard-working" people are employed on a full- and part-time basis by Canadian Waste in Clarington, says Dreslinski. Canadian Waste has six garbage trucks which are contracted to the municipality. Expanding Services While garbage pick-up in Clarington accepts "basically anything you put out with your garbage," Dreslinski says the local site, with approval from Clarington council, is now expanding expanding services to allow the general public to bring extra items to the site. For example, if you have more than the municipality's four-bag maximum, the transfer station will accept the waste. The site accepts any non-hazardous household, commercial and industrial garbage. Vehicles are weighed entering and leaving the site to determine how much waste has been dumped. Canadian Waste charges $90 a tonne to dump garbage, with a $7 minimum charge. "The average car is just charged the $7," says Dreslinski, adding the scales arc extremely accurate. accurate. Every two weeks, Clarington residents are invited to take their blue boxes, containing recyclables, recyclables, to the curb. Recycling pick-up is on the same day as garbage collection throughout the municipality, and is handled by a company contracted contracted by the Region of Durham. Peter Watson, of the Durham Works Department, says all blue box materials go to the Region's recycling centre in Whitby. "Last year, residents of the region managed to send in 26,236 tonnes in the Blue Box Program," says Watson proudly. "We received all that material, material, processed it, and sold it to various organizations for remanufacture," says Watson, adding people might be surprised at how quickly the materials are recycled. "The paper you're reading tonight, about two weeks after you put it in your blue box, could be back at your door again," lie says. Paper Weight Paper makes up about 60 percent of the weight in an average blue box, says Watson. Newspapers, magazines, junk mail, and other papers of that ilk arc sold to Atlantic Packaging in Whitby. Boxboard and cardboard go to the same company's Scarborough plant. Aluminum cans arc sold to Alcan Aluminum. Steel cans go to Dofasco in Hamilton for processing. processing. Plastics coded with a "1" go to Quebec, where they arc ground up and used for clothing, caquet and other materials. And glass is also sent to Quebec, to a company which makes fiberglass insulation.' Watson says Durham residents arc pretty good at putting proper materials in the blue box. With 130,000 homes in the program, he says the level of contamination is at 0.01 percent -- and most ol the contamination comes in the form of plastic bags. Watson says residents can make recycling even easier by using two or more blue boxes -- one for paper and another for loose items such as cans and bottles. Extra blue boxes are available at a minimal charge from the recycling contractor, Miller Waste Systems. "Put the container box on top of the paper box. If you need more blue boxes, $4 is what the cost is. It's a very effective program," says Watson. But he says he hopes for even greater compliance, compliance, as "we need to gel all the things we can out of the green garbage bags."