Orange Drop is a provincial initiative aiming at curbing or eliminating the number of hazardous materials being disposed of in Ontario’s landfills, or poured down sewer drains. Fully funded by industry, the province wide array of drop off sites accept nine materials. The program’s website gives a glimpse into some interesting facts and statistics about the kinds of things Ontarians don’t dispose of properly. The Orange Drop program safely manages nine materials to … Read more »
Canada is a vast expanse. We’re rich in natural landscape, unfettered by the encroachment of civilization. We live in a massive country with a tremendous amount of boreal forest and nature. Unfortunately, as a nation, we have some issues with trashing our woods and forests. The CBC published a very interesting article on this last week, and it’s a bit sobering to say the least. They even included a series … Read more »
Staggering statistic time. 40 million tons of e-waste is discarded globally each year, with only about 13 percent currently undergoing some form of recycling: The rest winds up in the trash and landfills. To put this into perspective – NASA and private enterprise is staging and financing eventual trips to asteroids for rare earth metals. Elements like palladium, copper, nickel, and tungsten. We’re using so much of this stuff in … Read more »
The city’s green bin program has been a controversial subject since it’s introduction. Even that’s a bit of a understatement. Late last month, Auditor General Ken Hughes presented his internal audit of the handling of the city’s Orgaworld contract, which found $8 million in “unnecessary costs” paid to the company, plus $1.7 million in legal fees for the arbitration. The report’s findings revealed missing documents, lack of oversight, and “fundamental … Read more »
We’re involved in another E-Waste Collection and Roundup on Saturday June 7th, 2014. It’s going down at the Jim Durrell complex on Walkley, and we’re looking to collect another few tons of everything from old computers, electronics, televisions, VCRs and DVD players, and any other electronic waste that’s just taking up space in your home of office. At our last event, we ended up collecting over 3 tonnes of material, … Read more »
Carleton University computer science student Michael Lutaaya was intent on creating a practical app that was useful for the city’s residents. He had his Eureka moment when his parents mixed up their garbage day schedule during a holiday week. He developed BINS, an app you can download in the Apple’s iOS store for your iPhone or iPad. The app helps Ottawa’s residents with knowing when and what to put out … Read more »
We all use cell phones, tablets, DVD players, and desktop computers. These are just a few electronic items that we employ in our every day lives – however – have you ever thought about where these things end up when we throw them in the trash? Check out the above map to find out! Canada generated 860,000 tonnes of e-waste in 2012. Toxic chemicals in electronics products can … Read more »
The good news: The amount of curb side garbage being diverted from Ottawa landfills was more than 50 per cent for the first time in 2013. Green bin collection increased 23.6 per cent to 83,000 tonnes in 2013. You read that right. Right on! The bad news: Not all of the city’s green bin waste is being processed at Orgaworld, the chair of the environment committee announced Tuesday. Only 69,000 tonnes … Read more »
Add this to the awesome file. Indian entrepreneur Nitin Gupta founded what is one of the most interesting E-Waste recycling companies in the world. He is the CEO of Attero, an E-waste recycler. Currently, a half million tonnes of e-waste is discarded each year in India, but almost 95% is still recycled in the informal sector, according to recent estimates. Typically, the neighbourhood kabadiwala, the Hindustani term for junk dealer, collects the material. … Read more »
Came across this great piece late last year, concerning the diversion of the city of Ottawa’s waste from the municipal landfill. According to the piece by the Ottawa Sun’s Susan Sherring, despite the entry of the infamous — and expensive green bin — Ottawa diverts one of the lowest percentages of residential trash from the city’s landfills. The Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative compares a number of different service areas, including garbage, … Read more »