Did You Know... (Recycling)

Did You Know...
It's hard to believe that babies- so small and innocent- are responsible for 2.5% of all residential waste going into the landfills! Yes, in Canada we throw away 1.7 billion dispoable diapers every year. And the manufacture of disposable diapers in Canada consumes approximately 65, 500 tonnes of pulp, 8,800 tonnes of plastic and 9,800 tonnes of packing material. Cloth diapers are a greener alternative. If you don't want to wash diapers, consider a diaper service.

Plastic
Plactics account for 7% of the total weight of a typical landfill. In fact, Canadians take home more than 55 million plastic bags a week! Many plastics are fully recyclable like HDPE and PET. New, interesting products are being made from empty detergent bottles, milk jugs and other plastic refuse. For example, recycled PET is used to make fabric, insulation for sleeping bags and ski jackets; clothing such as T-shirts and uniforms; furniture; luggage; and carpet. And it is used in business equipment and supplies, such as overhead transparencies, covers, briefcases, 3-ring binders, erasable wall planners, chairs, bookmarks, computer bags and business cards. Recycled HDPE is used to make irrigation pipes, garden hoses and plastic trays for greenhouse plants.

Electrical Waste
As newer and more advanced computer, phones and entertainment equipment keep arriving on the market, older models begin to pile up in landfills. More than 140,000 tonnes of computer equipment, phones, televisions, stereos and small home appliances accumulate in Canadian landfills each year. That's equivalent to the weight of about 28,000 adult African elephants!

The amount of electrical waste is becoming a growing problem for municipalities.

All of this electrical waste does more than just take up land and space- it poses a risk to human health and the environment. Lead, cadmium, mercury and other heavy metals found in electronic equipment need to be properly managed to avoid polluting land and waterways.

Land filling electronic waste is also a lost opportunity because these products normally contain recyclable aluminum, ferrous metals and copper. In 1999, it is estimated that discarded personal computers along contained 4,400 tonnes of ferrous metal, 3,050 tonnes of aluminum and 1,500 tonnes of copper. In 2004, Alberta Environment estimated that more than 190,000 televisions and 90,000 desktop computers were discarded from Alberta households.