Recycle those empties!

I really hope Australia can integrate a cash deposit system for their beverage containers, because here in Alberta is perfect proof of how a deposit system works. We are nearly at an 85% return rate, saving thousands of tons of material from ending up in the landfill. Australia's government needs to step up and make legislation mandating the single use beverage companies like Coke and Nestle manage the end of life of their products better. They did it here, that's why I'm employed with the ABCRC!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Job at the ABCRC

Image
It's been a while, but now that my last full semester is over I have a bit more time! I've started my new summer work term as part of my applied degree in environmental science. I'm working as a Love to Recycle Ambassador with the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation. Our team members go out to various events as well as schools to educate the public and children about the importance of recycling beverage containers, and offering them resources to improve recycling infrastructure. I'm very excited to be back in the recycling and education field, because I truly believe it to be an integral part in improving the culture around sustainable actions. Even on my second  day I've learnt so many things! Here's a few of them: Juiceboxes can be made into toilet paper! water bottles can be turned into clothing! Aluminum cans are turned back into cans, over and over again! Among other information is this handy new website, lovetorecycle , where there are ...
Read more
Image
Today I attended a discussion on how to make a better Calgary. The first part of the talk was dominated by the subject of the road ring from the perspective of a native living on the Tsuu T'ina reserve and it was very eye opening. The second part started with a discussion, started by me, about Calgary's waste management systems, the lacking of recycling infrastructure around the city, forcing people to throw it all away or simply throw it on the ground. This evolved into finding the causes of consumerism and how we can shift the collective consciousness towards a smaller, sustainable mindset. We talked a lot about 'Transition towns', small self sufficient communities built on cooperation, on borrowing rather than buying, growing and composting rather than throwing away. In smaller communities it would be more obvious to see all the fine workings of a system, and with this awareness of our surroundings people would lean away from consumerism, from the commodity of conven...
Read more

5 Useful tricks for greener living

1) Be prepared! If you know you're going shopping, bring your reusable bags. If you're going to buy coffee, bring your own mug. There wouldn't be a need for so much disposable one time waste, which fills our landfills needlessly, if we planned ahead and utilized reusable materials. 2)Everyone should have a water filter either attached to the tap or a britta pitcher. It will filter the hardness and chemicals like sulfate, chloride and calcium out of the water, resulting in better tasting and purer water than bottled water. In my opinion bottled water is the stupidest product ever. Bottling tap water into plastic bottles, transporting it and selling it, is highly unsustainable and a waste of resources. If we all brought our own reusable water bottles with us, we could save a lot of needless waste and energy. 3) If you're like me and have leaky taps, a good interim solution is to collect that water and use it. I place my britta filter under the tap over night, and it p...
Read more