The recent back-ups at recycling processors in Metro Vancouver due to tougher standards required by Chinese processors are proving that the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society system has the cleaner, greener way.
“We’ve been saying that for a while,” said Kim Day, executive-director at the recycling depot.
Unlike most recycling systems in Metro Vancouver, Maple Ridge recyclables are sorted at the source, at the curbside by homeowners who dutifully put cardboard, papers, cans and plastic into five bags and one blue box.
The recyclables are then dumped into separate bins in the recycling trucks so that when those trucks arrive at the depot, there’s far less work to do than a single stream system – in which recyclables are tossed into a single blue bag, then sorted at the recycling centre.
The former system produces a cleaner waste stream that’s uncontaminated and more marketable, allowing shipping to local markets and creating better returns.
“We’ve been saying that for a while,” Day said. “We’ve felt that single stream was bad.”
Day said the society understands the pros and cons of both systems. Under a single recycling stream, it’s easier for people to collect all their recyclables and toss them into one bag.
“You absolutely get more participation – but you get more contamination.”
That also means more work in order to clean items at the depot.
Making the change over, though, to a separated stream would be pricey for cities. The recycling collection trucks would have to be redesigned to collect the different products, while reconfiguration also would be required at the processing plants.
Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, along with the rest of the province are preparing for change that will see virtually all packaging products recycled when Multi-Material B.C. starts recycling packaging and printed paper in May 2014.
Maple Ridge has also figured out how to get people in condos and apartment buildings to recycle, Daykin said.
Council heard Monday from Paul Henderson, with Metro Vancouver’s solid waste services, who gave an update about how some haulers are now taking garbage to a transfer stations in Abbotsford instead of facilities in Metro Vancouver. From the transfer stations in Abbotsford, the garbage is likely shipped to the U.S., although Metro Vancouver doesn’t know the precise location. That can cut into tipping fee revenue that Metro Vancouver charges for dumping garbage.
Metro Vancouver, as a result, is considering a bylaw that would require all garbage be processed in the region, although approval for that is necessary from the provincial government.
Metro Vancouver wants to be diverting or recycling 70 per cent of the garbage it produces by 2015.
Henderson said Metro Vancouver’s garbage incinerator in Burnaby generates enough electricity to power 20,000 homes but produces only 0.9 per cent of the region’s nitrogen oxides. “It has no significant contribution to air quality.”