10 - Friday, September 13, 1991 - North Shore News Bay drop-off a mixed blessin WELL, tT’S) over: the first-ever North Shore mix- ed paper recycling drop-off event. And, truth to tell, | can’t say I’m sorry. He all startea inaocently enough when The Bay approached the North Shore Reeyeling Program — with whom 1 do part-time work — for help in organizing an en- vironmental back-to-school cam- paign. “Oh,” said we, blithely, “Why don’t you collect mixed paper?’* The Bay loved the idea. We knew the public, overburdened with paper they felt too guilty to throw out, would be equally ecstatic. So we asked our blue box con- tractors, International Paper [n- dustries, if they could find a mar- ket for it — not easy these days. They could. ft was agreed. The weekend of Sept. 6 to § would be mixed paper days at The Bay. Here's how it turned out: * DAY 4: Friday, 5-9 p.m. Well, it was supposed to be 5 to 9 p.m. By the time Bryn from the recycling program got there to set up, people had already left shopp- ing carts and garbage bags full of paper piled up in’ The Bay's garden centre. Bryn gives a cheery wave and drives off, as a Bay employee and L settle in for what t anticipated might be a slow evening. As it turns out, we have steady traffic well past dark and right up to closing time. | begin to eye doubtfully the multi-tconne con- tainer that IPE has supplied us with. © DAY 2: Saturday, 9:30 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. Fortunately, this is the day the recycling program's Green Team kicks in, and the day starts out with volunteer Laura and | eager and willing to save the planet by accepting various paper wastes from the public. By 10:30 a.m., the realization settles upon us that we are in for a long haul. Extra Green Teamers volunteer their services, and those scheduled for two-hour shifts stay for four. Cherie goes above and beyond the call of duty by crawling inside the scum-encrusted, covered steel bin to better distribute the piles of Paper to create some much-needed space. She nearly loses various body parts when unwitting participants hur! telephone books inside the bin, unawae of its human occu- pant. If it wasn’t for the rush, we would be slowed down more than a little by the range of interesting stuff people were tossing in our direction. National Geographics from the *30s. Reader's Digests from the ’40s. Playboys from the ‘70s. Christmas cards, children’s art, and the latest People magazine. But with five or so cars always waiting, bearing an average of five boxes each, there is no time for scavenging. We are, however, pleased that a teacher happily traded in her mix- ed paper and walks off with a stack of National Geographics for A>. 725 MARINE, N.VAN. 984-0331 Peggy Trendell-Whittaker ECOINFO her classroom. And a Jocal recyeler who now raises chickens makes off with a slack of cardboard egg cartons, while a mom finds a discarded children’s book amongst the piles and a omusicitn pounces upon some abandoned music. By mid-afternoon, we have completa filled the IP] container and are farced to trolley the in- coming bags and boxes into the Bay's Garden Centre storage area. Pame begins to set in ay we contemplate the hordes vet to ar- tive an the morrow. Where to store the paper? * DAY ?: Sunday, p.m, The day begins with an earty- morning call from eco-mom, who has, true to form, been worrying about the paper dilemma all night while Powas out ata teenager movie, the title of which | am teo embarrassed to mention. She suggests renting a moving truck to load the paper into. ft will, she says, save hauling it into The Bay. She's right. 7 call Budget and reserve a five-ton. Varrive at Budget and claim my truck, which is larger than the last apartment [lived in and requires a nmintladder to ascend into the cab, Io come to grips with the fact that fo owill probably kill at least one pedestrian this day and may be spending the rest of my fi behind bars. f drive off, noting that the truck does indeed differ from my last apartment ins that my apartment had better pick up. The day goes smcothly — both Tangee and ecco-mom, volunteers extraordinaire, return for ia second noon toa § das, and Tanvee has brought son Ellery -- and we even have a four-minute break at about 3:30 pam. for oa) communal muffin muach. We reach the truck's capacits at the stroke of S p.m. © DAY 4: Monday, Sept. 10 The public event is over, but we now have a truckload of paper to deal with. We jearn there is no room ac —P(s North Van plant for the paper, so Fangee, Bryn and Pegey leap into the five-ton for a road trip to Surrey. We weigh into the PPE Surrey plant, then spend the next two hours heaving boxes of paper and magazines onto a pile in the yard. We weigh out and learn we have just unloaded five tonnes of material. We buy ourselves @ con- gratutatory Junen, © DAY 5: Tuesday, Sept. 11 There is still the paper in storage at The Bay to deal with, so Darryl at The Bay, Bryn and 1 pack it into the empty container that [Pt has dropped off, in tond, we estimate that the North Shore has recycled 15S ton- nes of paper -—— 15,000 kilos — which will be turned into heavy- duty construction and = roofing paper. MANY WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS PUT ENTIRE FAMILIES IN THE HOSPITAL. Listen. Every time you decide not to practice safety at work, it’s more than your life on the line. It’s the lives of everyone that cares about you. It’s all well and good for you to decide that safety is for the other guy. But if you do have an accident, and statistics show O) Safety. 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