Recycling on P.E.I. is 'a lot better than it used to be,' says company
Green Isle Environmental says it's finding less garbage in blue bags
The company that collects blue bags across P.E.I. says Islanders' recycling skills are much improved.
About 95 per cent of the materials now coming into the facility are recyclable, with just a small amount going into P.E.I.'s landfill, said Darcy Gallant, supervisor at Green Isle Environmental in Charlottetown.
Islanders had a big learning curve when the mandatory Waste Watch program was introduced, Gallant said — he credits the current success to better education.
"It means everyone's starting to learn. We're starting to catch on better to the recycling. All the products that we are going through are being used again and back to more product," he said.
'Sorting, sorting and sorting'
Green Isle Environmental's facility has 36 people working on its three conveyor belts weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
"Every single person has a product that they have to sort," said Gallant. "They're on their feet nine hours a day and they just stay at it constantly — sorting, sorting and sorting."
The work begins as green trucks back into the building and dumps their load of blue bags onto the cement floor.
The first crew splits open the bags and dumps the recyclables onto a conveyor belt. The blue bags themselves are tossed into a pile and saved.
The conveyor belt carries the recyclables up to the second floor where the next sorting crew grabs all the plastic bags from the stream and throws them down on to a mountain of plastic.
Conveyor belt to conveyor belt
Other sorters along the line grab plastic bottles and jugs from the moving conveyor. The rest of the unsorted recyclables fall on to yet another conveyor belt where a crew removes paper.
The very last step is to grab anything that was missed.
"By the time it gets to the end of this line, whatever anybody didn't get, these two gentlemen here, their job is to pick up whatever recyclables were missed and then whatever falls off is what we consider waste," said Gallant. Those non-recyclables drop into a garbage bin.
'Recycled again'
The recyclables are baled into huge squares and stacked almost two storeys high.
"Once it gets baled we ship it off to various places … to be recycled again," said Gallant.
It's good to see Prince Edward Islanders do their part for the environment, he added.
"It's amazing how much is recyclable," said Gallant. "Very minimum is waste. It's a lot better than it used to be."
However there's still room for improvement, he said, noting some things are still ending up in blue bags that shouldn't be there.
Recycling don'ts
Gallant offered some tips on what not to put in your blue bags.
1. No dirty containers
"We get a lot of wet paper that shouldn't be in blue bags or peanut butter jars that still have their covers on that are still half full of peanut butter that we have to make sure are cleaned out," he said.
2. No needles
"We get the odd needle in there. There are proper venues for people to properly dispose of their needles," said Gallant, directing consumers to IWMC's website to locate needle drop-off locations.
"The biggest fear is not seeing a needle and getting poked by one, I wouldn't want it myself and hopefully no employee gets it."
3. No used diapers
Yes, dirty diapers get "stuffed in" with the recycling — but they don't belong there.
"Used diapers is one of the issues that we have to deal with on a daily basis. The biggest issue is going to be proper education for people that are doing the recycling. So no used diapers, please," he said.
4. No shoes
Shoes and boots are another issue the sorters see, Gallant said.
"If you have a pair of shoes you no longer need, there are places out there — the second-hand places that would love to have them, but to us they're just garbage," and cost the company to dispose of, said Gallant.
There are new textile recycling bins at Green Isle Environmental Islanders can drop unwanted clothing, drapes and yes, footwear that is not suitable for charity donation.
5. No wet paper
Wet paper should go in the compost, not the recycling, said Gallant.
- MORE P.E.I. NEWS | Making cigar box guitars P.E.I. man's new passion
- MORE P.E.I. NEWS | Butcher and law school: Islander juggles double life of going to school and running a shop