Trash is taken pretty seriously here in Edmonton - I think our favourite trash-loving muppet would be proud. (Did you know that Oscar the Grouch was originally orange? He wasn't green until Season 2!) As a resident, it is very easy to recycle. Just put your recyclables into a transparent blue bag that you buy at any store, and put it in the bin. There's no sorting of containers vs. newsprint vs. "other paper". For single family homes, just put your blue bag out with your garbage on collection day. For apartment dwellers, just drop your blue bag into the blue bin which is (hopefully!) located in the garbage room of your building.
Our building, I am dismayed to admit, does not have a blue bin. I just find it so hard to believe that in this day and age, a condo council would not have a recycling program in their building. but alas, I am a renter, so don't have much of say about what goes on around here. We just grab our blue bag, and take it down the street to another building's blue bin.
Not only do you not have to sort - but you can recycle almost all your household goods. Plastic containers of all kinds (instead of having to check the bottom to make sure it's the right type to go in the Vancouver recycling system), milk cartons and tetrapaks, even empty non-hazardous aerosol cans.
In keeping with Edmonton's desire to have the largest of everything (more on this in a future post), Edmonton boasts North America's largest waste processing facility. The Edmonton Waste Management Centre is 233 hectares of composting, residential and industrial recycling, e-waste recycling, and treatment plant.
The EWMC also houses a Research and Development Facility as part of the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence. In case you are wondering, the EWMC is open for group tours, call 780-496-6879 for more information.
For items not blue-bagable, residents can bring other household waste to one of three eco-stations in the city. Here they can unload cans of paint, car batteries and electronic waste at no charge! For other household items, like that old sofa that the cat has scratched up and even Value Village won't take it, bring it to the eco-station! There will be a charge, but you can get rid of furniture, fridges, fencing, and any other big bulky items that might otherwise end up in the landfill.
The eco-station also offers any usable paint that comes in to customers for free! Need some neon green to finish up that door trim? Or midnight blue for that canvas painting you're working on? I'm sure you'll find it at the eco-station. Since 1995, over 350,000 litres of free paint has been given away.
Edmontonians should be proud! They divert approximately 60% of all household waste away from the landfill through recycling and composting programs, with a goal of reaching 90% diversion by 2013. FAN-tastic! Great work Edmonton!
I must say, for a city with a reputation for being very "industrial" and not particularly "green" - Edmonton does a great job managing all the waste produced here.
