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RECYCLING CONCEPTS
Q. Why recycle? Don’t they just throw it in the garbage any way?
A. Not in the Bow Valley. The response to these "stories" that recyclables are thrown in the garbage is simple local economics. Not sorting recyclables and refundables when shipping garbage is so expensive in the Bow Valley is throwing your municipal money in the garbage.
We have to pay $90.00 per tonne to get Bow Valley garbage dumped in a landfill in Calgary. We can sell most recyclables to a recycling market for between $10 and $60 per tonne. If a material cannot be sold then it can be shipped to a recycler for a much lower cost than shipping garbage to a landfill.
Collection of garbage and recyclable materials is expensive due to the staff and equipment costs involved. If we know recyclable materials are going in the garbage why would we send a truck and crew out once to collect garbage and then again to collect a recyclable material so we can put it back in the garbage? Bow Valley waste and resource recovery managers have better things to do with limited staff and equipment that make two trips to collect material that is going in the garbage. If we do not recycle or otherwise divert material from landfill disposal then we do not collect it separately from garbage.
Keep in mind that some special materials are collected separately even though the cost to collect and dispose of them is questionable. Fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent lights are a good example of this type of material. However, since Bow Valley municipalities recognize the environmental hazards associated with these waste materials our municipal managers are committed to providing people with an opportunity to “do the right thing” to keep hazardous materials out of landfills.
PLASTIC
Plastic Bags
Q. Should I use a plastic bag?
A. Consider these things to help choose what's best for you and the environment. Visit our Reduce The Use page for more information about limited use plastic shopping bags.
Miscellaneous Plastic Stuff
Q. Where can I properly recycle plastic CDs, DVDs and cases that do not have a recyclable plastic identification number?
A. Check your electronics retail outlet to see if they collect these items as part of their committment to producer and retailer responsibility for the products they sell. Best Buy and Future Shop outlets are known to have plastic collection programs at their stores so check out the links below and let us know if you find other retailers who take lifecycle responsibility for the products they sell.
Best Buy: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/recycling.aspx
Future Shop:http://www.futureshop.ca/en-ca/futuregeneration/recycle.aspx
COMPOSTABLE MATERIALS
Q. What is accepted in Banff organics collection bins?
A. Any plant or animal waste from your kitchen can go in an organics collection bin for Banff’s composting programme. This includes all parts of fruit and vegetables as well as meat and small bones such as poultry and fish carcasses. Clean sawdust and wood chips, wood ashes, tea bags and coffee grounds are acceptable. Food soiled paper and cardboard as well as independently certified foodware and compostable bags approved by the Town of Banff are also acceptable. However, many plastic bags labeled as “degradable”, “compostable” or “biodegradable” in Canada are NOT suitable for municipal composting programs and should not be placed in Banff’s organics collection bins. See our FAQ on plastic bags for more details.
Coffee Grounds
Q. What can I do with old coffee grounds?
A. Coffee grounds are mostly water and just one cup of coffee per day can generate 20 kilograms of waste per year. That weight will cost $2.60 to ship to a landfill. Multiply that by the number of residents and visitors drinking coffee in the Bow Valley and there is a lot of weight, water and money we are needlessly shipping to create problems underground in landfills.
Fortunately, coffee grounds are easily disposed of in other ways. The grounds can be rinsed down the drain with grey water, mixed with garden soil or, if there is an organics collection programme in your community, place your coffee grounds in a municipal organics collection bin. Remember – NO PLASTIC is allowed in a Bow Valley organics collection bin. Use a reusable container for your organics or ask us about properly certified and approved compostable bags. If you must use a disposable plastic bag please empty the compostable material in the bin and place the dirty plastic bag in a nearby garbage bin.
Yard Waste And Weeds
Q. We have some weeds that we do not want to put into our compost at home, we also have bagged grass. Could you please tell us where the location for compostable yard waste is and let us know if we can compost weeds in your compost sites.
A. You can take yard waste to municipal recycling depots in Banff and Canmore. The Towns either compost it locally (Banff) or deliver it to Francis Cooke Regional Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre (Canmore) for composting. Ideally these larger scale outdoor composting operations would raise temperatures high enough and long enough to kill weed seeds but that is not always the case throughout the compost mix. Weeds may also escape in handling and processing before they get into an active composting process. Francis Cooke Regional Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre must be very careful about not being a source of noxious or invasive weed species. If they escape from our composting operation we are required by law to spray for control which we prefer to minimize for environmental and financial reasons. And there is always the concern that weeds may inadvertently escape from transport as they are moved around the landscape.
So, if you know you have a concentrated collection of weed material the best practice in the Bow Valley is to bag them and place them in the garbage bin.
Grass and other yard trimmings can be taken to your municipal recycling depot for local composting in Banff or composting at the Commission’s Francis Cooke Regional Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre. In Banff take material to the Town of Banff Operations office in the industrial compound for directions to the yard waste collection pile. In Canmore, take your yard trimmings to the labeled bin at the Boulder Crescent Recycling Depot off Glacier Drive in the Elk Run Industrial Park. Exshaw residents can take yard waste material to the collection site on Diamond Drive (near sewage lagoons).
GLASS
Q. Do the lids need to be removed from the glass containers I recycle?
A. Yes.
Place only glass food containers in glass recycling bins. Do not place lids or other metal, ceramic, porcelain, wood, paper, plastic or other non-glass materials in a glass recycling bin. All recycled glass from the Bow Valley is taken by the Lafarge plant in Exshaw as a community service and is used in their manufacturing process. Metal (and other non-glass items) mixed with the glass can cause their equipment shut down. Lafarge has cautioned that it will not be possible to continue this recycling opportunity if metal and other non-glass contamination continues. So please place only glass food containers in your recycling bin. Metal lids can be recycled with other metals. Paper labels can be removed and recycled with mixed papers. (Please don’t throw money and resources away! Take your refundable glass beverage containers to the bottle depot to collect your refund or place them in a refundable beverage collection bin at your municipal recycling depot.)
