St. John's recycling project gets sorted out

Residents of more than 1,000 households in St. John's sorted their waste Monday into colour-coded containers as a pilot recycling project kicked into gear.

St. John's, one of the last major cities in Canada lacking an organized curbside recycling program, hopes to have a citywide program in place by the fall of 2008, although it has made no commitments about how — or even if— it will proceed.

Residents in two neighbourhoods— part of the downtown area and about half of Cowan Heights— will try different types of bins and containers to see which they like best.

"That's why we're doing the pilot project — just to get the feedback from the residents to see how they like these, which ones they prefer, which ones work better in our weather," said Paul Mackey, the city's public works director.

Separate containers are to be used to stream recyclables like organic waste, cardboard and beverage containers.

"It's kind of confusing at first, but we'll [figure] this out," said Sean Thistle, as he looked over the sorting kit that arrived recently at his family's home.

Danielle Hunt, who also lives in the Cowan Heights area, said Monday that her family is adjusting to the new system.

"Just with compost alone, I was surprised with what you can compost and what you can't," said Hunt, adding that tossing other recyclables is not much different than before.

"I just take them out, like normal garbage," she said.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government unveiled a new waste management strategy last week that intends to cut in half the amount of waste heading to landfills.

The plan, however, did not include a mandatory recycling component. Instead, a variety of incentives will be offered to encourage communities to recycle, with each developing their own priorities.

Organized recycling in the province, though, is limited. Even in the St. John's area, major depots collect only beverage containers, newsprint, cardboard and some types of paper. Private companies accept other materials, often at a cost to the consumer.

"We have a few additional challenges here— large landmass, small population, and there's quite a distance from the markets," said Mike Wadden, a manager with Ever Green Recycling, which operates the depots.

Diana Baird, a St. John's environmental activist, said "reduce" and "reuse" need to be borne in mind as communities adopt more comprehensive recycling programs. She pointed out that there is often a not-so-green underside to mass recycling.

"Most of the recycled containers that we send out from this province end up going to different regions in the States — perhaps Pennsylvania and places like that," Baird said.

"So there [are] huge transportation issues and greenhouse gas emission issues associated with that."

Environment Minister Clyde Jackman said the government will continue to outline greater options for recycling.

"I can assure [the public] that recycling will be an integral, important part of this entire strategy," Jackman told the legislature last week.