By Mike Renzella
The Haldimand Press
From a consumer perspective, recycling seems like a fairly simple process. Toss used recyclable items in the bin, put it to the curb, and feel good for taking a small step to help the environment. But have you ever wondered what happens to your recycling once it’s picked up and taken away?
We were given the opportunity to find out the answer to that question firsthand and chose to focus on a single can of Coca-Cola as it makes its way through the recycling process.
Nancy McKinnon, Environmental Operations Supervisor for Haldimand County, outlined the factors that combine to form a successful recycling operation. They are:
- Participants of the Recycling Program to dispose of the materials in either a black box (fibre + film) or blue box (containers)
- A contractor for curbside collection of black/blue boxes, totes and/or blue transparent bags, handled in Haldimand by a company called Modern Landfill
- The sale of recycled materials to Niagara Region
- A hauling service, George Barnes & Sons (GBAS), for hauling filled 53-foot trailers from the Canborough Waste Management Facility to the Material Recycling Facility (MRF) in Niagara Falls
- A thorough sorting and processing process to separate recycled materials at the Niagara facility, after which they are bundled and sold.
- The last, and possibly most important factor? Educated and passionate people to make the system work.
While we may be looking at the journey of a single can, recycling in Haldimand is an absolutely massive undertaking, with Modern Landfill collecting roughly 3,517 tonnes of recycled goods from roughly 21,000 homes over 2021, and GBAS delivering 1,517 tonnes of containers to the Niagara MRF.
Over 2021, Niagara Region paid Haldimand County $456,000 for the purchase of Haldimand’s recyclables, with aluminum being the hottest commodity, selling at $1,908 per metric tonne in 2021 and increasing to a whopping $3,392 per metric tonne in 2022.
McKinnon urged the community to be more discerning when placing items in the recycling bin, noting that 14% of all materials found in local recycling bins was garbage, according to a December 2021 audit. For more information on what can, or can’t, be recycled, download the RecycleCoach app on your smartphone or visit haldimandcounty.ca/garbage-recycling.
Here, we present a photographic journey from Canborough to Niagara, allowing for a peak behind-the-scenes at the massive local effort to get the job done.
Collection [masterslider id=”184″]
Transferring of recycled goods [masterslider id=”185″]
Processing of recycled goods [masterslider id=”186″]
