Path: utzoo!utgpu!lsuc!sickkids!dptcdc!ncrcan!ontenv!moegate!soley
From: soley@moegate.UUCP (Norman S. Soley)
Newsgroups: tor.general
Subject: Re: Recycling in general(was Re: Recycling Phonebooks)
Message-ID: <207@moegate.UUCP>
Date: 25 Mar 89 18:27:10 GMT
References: <89Mar15.154034est.19517@me.utoronto.ca> <444@ontenv.UUCP> <2226@maccs.McMaster.CA>
Distribution: tor
Organization: Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Toronto
Lines: 70

nusip@maccs.McMaster.CA (Mike Borza) writes:
> Now you've hit a nerve... (the fact that we've got Norm from MOE along
> on the topic should make this interesting).

WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE HERE! PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT I DO NOT SPEAK FOR 
THE MINISTRY IN MY POSTINGS! 

Ok now that we've got that out of the way I can stop shouting.
  
> Here in Hamilton, we've got curb-side recycling in place at last,
> following the lead of some more progressive communities, and ahead of
> some laggardly others.
> 
> One of the things that really bothers me about the program, as it exists
> here, is that products which should be ideal candidates for recycling are
> excluded.  Aluminum foil, for example, is usually scattered on my lawn
> after pick-up day.  Given the energy deficit one faces when producing
> aluminum from raw materials compared with the cost of reusing refined
> aluminum, this should be one of the highest priority reuse items.
> It would seem to me that even if it was necessary to set aside a small
> portion of landfill sites to store specific materials while recycling
> programs are instituted for those materials, we'd be far further ahead
> than just lumping them in with other waste for which there is no clear
> recycling technology.  Why is there no agressive policy to deal with
> relatively simple issues such as this? (he asked naively)  I think that
> more than part of the answer lies in Norm's reply on the disposition of
> old telephone books in India (no hewers of wood and drawers of water in
> this high-tech free-trade society, no, sir).

Really there are three problems that are causing this type of thing;

The Ministry of Environment doesn't put as much effort into this as it
probably should, not that were standing around twiddling our thumbs,
it's just that the people who make such decsicions have decided that
things like MISA and acid rain are more important. Add to this the
fact that many municipalties view any Ministry efforts in this area as
Provicial interference in what is after all a municipal responsibility;

Curbside recycling in Ontario was pretty much invented singlehandedly
by the City of Kitchener 6 years ago. In that 6 years there have been
a lot of advances in recycling technology and a lot of better ideas
about how to run these programs have been tried by communities in the
US and elsewere in Canada yet the blue box programs being implemented
in Ontario today are virtually identical to the program initiated in 
Kitchener 6 years ago. Why? A lack of imagination, or interest, or real 
commitment to the idea on the part of city councils and works departments;

In many places the decision has been made to not do curbside sorting,
either in a boneheaded attempt to save money or knuckling under to the
workers unions who have never been happy about doing it. This results
in a lot of contamination by non-recyclables, which in turn results in
the recycling contractors rejecting a lot of loads. Also many places
have not spent an appropriate amount of money in promotion and
education on how to properly use the boxes. 

So? What is to be done? Firstly use the boxes in exactly the way
you've been told to, no matter how stupid the rules might be, doing
your part to make the program work is one of the strongest weapons you
have in convincing you city council to increase it's commitment to the
idea. Write to your council, and to the Ministry, listing the things
you would like to recycle but can't and encouraging them to add them
to the "allowed" list. When you travel note the good things about
other communities programs and write to council about them. 



-- 
Norman Soley - The Communications Guy - Ontario Ministry of the Environment
Until the next maps go out:	moegate!soley@ontenv.UUCP 
if you roll your own: 	uunet!{attcan!ncrcan|mnetor!ontmoh}!ontenv!moegate!soley