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our
recycling process
preparation, transportation and re-manufacturing
After dropping off your recyclables at the depot they are bagged, bailed, crushed and/or stored, and later transported to one of ten organizations and businesses representing the next step in the recycling process. Once or twice a week your recyclables are loaded onto the depot’s 22ft diesel truck for transport to Vancouver Island (and occasionally the BC lower mainland).
Our goal is to travel the shortest distance possible with these loads and, where information/proof is available, to track the remainder of the recycling process. We want to know what happens to your/our recyclables and to minimize the environmental impact. See details for each recycling category below.
You may be surprised to learn that we receive very little revenue from your recyclables. With the exception of refundable containers and non-ferrous scrap metals, the revenues collected do not cover our loading and transportation costs. Thanks to our CRD contract and your membership dues and generous donations we continue to operate.
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What we take
and
how to prepare it.
Plastic
Bags
Plastic
Containers
Refundable
Drink Containers
Milk
Cartons
Glass
Containers & Other Glass
Paper
Products
Household
Metal Containers
Scrap
Metal
Appliances
Batteries
Paint
& Paint Containers
Electronics
Tires
Questions?
Call us at
629-6962
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Plastic
Bags
Soft plastic packaging (polyethylene) is bailed in our soft plastic bailer machine. Bales are then removed by forklift into a storage barn where they wait to be transported to Polycreations in Vancouver about every six months. There, these plastic bags are remanufactured into cores for plastic film and carpet rolls.
We receive no revenue from soft plastics.
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soft plastic bales
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Plastic
Containers
Hard plastic containers and packaging are bailed in our new high volume bailer. The bales are not stored at the depot for long due to the high volume of plastics we collect. They are transported to Syntal Products (www.syntalproducts.com) in Central Saanich where they are shredded, chipped and extruded into plastic lumber (sample at depot).
Brittle and rigid plastics like DVD & CD cases and ABS pipe are taken to the recycling area at the CRD’s Hartland location.
We receive no revenue from hard plastics.
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plastic bales stored for transport
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Refundable
Drink Containers
With the exception of glass domestic beer bottles, wine boxes and tetra paks, plastic liquor bottles and aluminum beer cans which are returned to the BC Liquor Store on Pender Island, all refundable drink containers are counted and bagged for pick up by Jon Guy, Encorp Pacific’s Return-It Depot operator from Saturna Island. He then delivers them to the Encorp warehouse in Victoria.
The Encorp system (www.encorp.ca) recovers 76% of beverage containers sold in the province. Last year (2007) about 1 billion containers were returned to Return-It Depots and recycled into a variety of different useful goods.
Our pick up takes place every 3-4 weeks. Your donation of these refundable containers is an important part of our funding and operating budget. Thank you.
Juice Containers
& Milk Cartons
Juice and soy boxes (called tetra paks) and gable-top juice and milk cartons (polycoated containers) are hydra-pulped to separate the paper, plastic and foil. The paper is turned into pulp and put to use again as cardboard boxes. For every ton of paper pulp recycled, approximately 17 trees are saved.
Plastic & Glass Bottles
Plastic bottles are power-washed, then shredded and power-washed again. From there, the shredded material is sold to companies who pull, stretch and meld the shreds into fibre for new bottles and buckets. Recycling plastics uses about 1/3 less energy than manufacturing new plastic.
Glass bottles are ground down into small pieces called "cullet" and used in the manufacturing of a variety of things such as fiberglass insulation, sandblasting material and sand for golf-course sand traps. Ground glass is also added to asphalt in the making of new roads.
Aluminum Cans
Aluminum soft drink cans are bailed, melted and back on the shelf again as cans within six weeks. This saves a lot of raw material, plus it takes 95% less energy to manufacture a can from recycled aluminum than it does to make it from brand new material. Bi-metal cans (non aluminum cans, usually steel) are baled and melted down into scrap metal.
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plastic bags of refundable containers
& mega bags of liquor bottles to be transported to Encorp
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Glass
Containers & Other Glass
Glass is crushed on site using our depot glass crushing machine. Crushed glass is available free to Pender Island residents for use as fill or a base layer when pouring concrete pads.
We receive no revenue from crushed glass.
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Les crushing glass
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Paper
Products
Mixed paper and newsprint are loose loaded onto our truck and transported bi-weekly to BFI Industries in Central Saanich. BFI sells the mixed paper and newsprint to pulp and paper producers where it is de-inked and returned to a pulp form, ultimately to be remade into recycled newsprint and other paper products.
Cardboard is bailed in our depot cardboard bailer and sold to BFI, who in turn sell the cardboard on the open market where it is remade into cardboard and boxboard.
We receive a small amount of revenue from paper products, but not enough to cover transportation costs.
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baskets of mixed paper & newsprint
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Household
Metal Containers
& Scrap Metal
Tin cans are crushed on site using our depot can crushing machine. These crushed “wafers” are transported monthly along with other ferrous scrap metals and appliances to Steel Pacific recycling in Victoria (www.steelpacific.com).
Tin (steel) cans are ground up into little pieces, shipped to a steel mill where it is melted and formed and then sold to manufacturers who recycle it into everything from rebar to new cars and bridges. Steel is the most recycled material on earth, and is an infinite source of recycling because it doesn’t lose its integrity or strength with re-use. Making steel from recycled material uses only 25% of the energy it takes to make steel from virgin ore.
Non-ferrous metals like aluminum cans and aluminum foil, copper, brass and lead are transported to Williams Scrap Metal in the Highlands.
Although the price per pound for scrap metals fluctuates wildly, we general receive sufficient revenue from non-ferrous metal to cover the labour intensive scrap metal sorting and loading process, and transportation costs. We do not recover our costs on ferrous metals.
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crushed tin can "wafers"
truck loaded with scrap metal
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Appliances
Loaded and trucked to Steel Pacific Recycling (see Scrap Metal above).
The scrap metal value of an appliance does not pay for the truck space and costs required to transport them to Victoria. We are also charged a drop off fee for each appliance containing freon (fridges and freezers).
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truck loaded with appliances
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Batteries
Every few months vehicle batteries are transported to Battery Direct in Victoria.
Household alkaline batteries are taken to the CRD Household Hazardous Waste area at Hartland. Rechargable batteries are sent to the Rechargable Battery Recycling Corporation. A thermal recovery process reclaims the metals (nickel, iron, cadmium, lead, and cobalt) from the batteries and prepares them for use in new products such as new batteries and stainless steel.
We receive little or no revenue from batteries.
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Paint
& Paint Containers
Reusable paint dropped off at the paint exchange area of the depot is displayed and available for Pender Island residents to take away and use. Empty and partial paint containers are picked up by Product Care Canadian Paint Stewardship Program (www.productcare.org) and transported to Surrey. There it is sorted for re-use or disposal.
We receive a monthly fee from Product Care for collecting paint containers.
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Electronics
Computers electronics, fax machines and TV’s are transported to the Salvation Army in Victoria, who in turn delivers them to Encorp. Electronic waste contains valuable resources such as metals, that should be processed and recycled in a safe and environmentally sound manner.
E-Cycle Solutions, Sims Recycling and Teck Cominco are the primary vendors who provide recycling services for these end-of-life electronics collected under the Encorp Return-It Electronics program. These vendors passed a rigorous environmental audit and assessment process before being chosen.
We receive no revenue from the Salvation Army or Encorp.
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Tires
Tires collected during our tire collection month each May are transported to Target Recycling/Island Tire Recycling in Chemainus. These old tires are processed into “crumb rubber” which in turn become everything from school running tracks and speed bumps to roofing tiles and railway ties.
We receive no revenue from tires.
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