75% Waste Diversion – Is it possible??
LMCA, Goldenhorn School and Aroma Borealis Take the Challenge
And Beat It!!
Can YOU????
The Mount Lorne Recycling Center is in the middle of a six month project with LMCA, Goldenhorn School and Aroma Borealis to see if 75 % recycling is possible. For comparison purposes, Whitehorse recycles about 15% according to Raven Recycling, Canada recycles 27% according to Stats Can (2004)and Mt. Lorne recycles 40%.
The premise for this project was that if it is possible to get larger institutions such as an entire elementary school with over 150 students and staff, or an entire community center with dozens of volunteers and community members attending events and programs, or a commercial enterprise running a high volume of business to recycle high percentages of their waste, then surely individual households could do the same. The results so far have been pretty amazing.
The Method
Increase recycling, or waste diversion is easy if its convenient. So all three of our participants agreed to try our sorting methods which entail separating waste into the following 4 categories.
Paper
All paper products are recyclable whether they are white paper, newspaper, cardboard, books or magazines. The reason they are separated is that the more pure the type of paper the higher the buying price (manufacturers buying from recycling centers or recycling brokers)
Plastic
All plastic products are also recyclable whether they are yogurt containers, plastic bags or milk jugs. Again, the separation of these types of plastics is for financial reasons.
Cans and bottles (glass, tin and plastic)
All drink containers, except for milk and milk substitutes i.e. soy or rice milk are refundable as well as recyclable. They can be sorted out for refunds. Other non drink containers i.e. tin cans and glass jars can go in this container and be quickly separated out at the recycling center.
Compost
all organic material is compostable. This includes food scraps as well as contaminated paper products including paper towels from washrooms, dryer lint, leaves, grass etc.
Each organization, with help from Mt. Lorne staff developed collection systems for their paper, plastic, compost and containers (cans and bottles). Mt. Lorne staff would then collect and weigh the recyclables as well as the garbage from each participant. From these figures we could determine how much each organization recycled. The following table and charts illustrate the amazing success of each of these organizations.
It took about two weeks for each group to get used to the 4 bin sorting system but after that everybody found it amazingly easy to recycle upwards of 75%. – even kindergarten and grade 1 kids.
The Next Challenge
Can Mt. Lorne recycle over 75%?? We are looking for 25 or 30 families who are interested in finding out. Please talk to Mike or Lee at the Mile 9 Recycling Center for more info.
Current Totals:
Project Diversion Totals (lbs) |
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| Compost | Paper | Plastic | Cans/Bottles | Total Diverted | Garbage | Total Collected | % Diversion | |
Aroma Borealis |
32 | 333 | 28.5 | 36 | 429.5 | 12.5 | 442 | 97.17% |
Golden Horn |
291 | 427 | 46 | 52 | 816 | 193 | 1009 | 80.87% |
LMCA |
92.1 | 39.5 | 11 | 37 | 179.6 | 17 | 196.6 | 91.35% |
| Combined totals | 415.1 | 799.5 | 85.5 | 125 | 1425.1 | 222.5 | 1647.6 | 86.50% |
Project Diversion Totals (%) |
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| Compost | Paper | Plastic | Cans/Bottles | Total Diverted | Garbage | Total Collected | % Diversion | |
Aroma Borealis |
7.2% | 75.3% | 6.4% | 8.1% | 97.2% | 2.8% | 100% | 97.17% |
Golden Horn |
28.8% | 42.3% | 4.6% | 5.2% | 80.9% | 19.1% | 100% | 80.87% |
LMCA |
46.8% | 20.1% | 5.6% | 18.8% | 91.4% | 8.6% | 100% | 91.35% |
| Combined totals | 27.6% | 45.9% | 5.5% | 10.7% | 89.8% | 10% | 100% | 86.50% |
