RECYCLING -MOTIVATORS

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Living a recycling -_ifestyle

LESLEY McLauchlin was recycling when recycling wasn’t too cool. .

“In the early ‘80s there was so much controversy about the forests and using our resources. I wanted to do my bit,” said McLzuchlin.

McLauchlin, 54, was born in West Vancouver. She has lived in North Vancouver for 10 years, after spending 15 years in Vancouver.

Back in 1981, McLauchlin started gathering her fami- ly’s old newspapers, cans and bottles and took them to a depot at the foot of Cambie Street in Vancouver.

“About 10 years later, the recycling ball began to really roll in - the Vancouver area. Blue boxes were distributed in 1990 on the North Shore.

“My husband’s parents are from the depression era. They look at us as if we are crazy to discuss this because they have always recycled and reused,” said McLauchlin. These days, McLauchlin’s weekly garbage output for a family of “2%” is one grocery store b

ag. She works full-time outside her home. McLauchlin and her electrical engineer husband use a cupboard in their kitchen to collect recyclables. They also compost. , Tronically, McLauchlin seldom uses the curbside blue box because she feels its limixations are “almost a waste.” Before the North Shore Recycling Drop-off Depot was opened, McLauchlin took her recyclables to the Still Creek depot in Burnaby once a monti:.

“The new (North Shore) depot accepts things that we’ve been allowed to recycle at Still Creek since the early 1980s,” said McLauchlin.

She admits that the occasional cat food can goes in the garbage at her house.

It takes her about 15 minutes to drop off fer recyclables.

“Tecan be quite a social occasion because you bump into other people recycling and ifir’s a nice day, people are happy and chat,” said McLauchlin.

She drops off the recyclables on the way to the grocery store and doesn’t make a wasteful, inconvenient special trip.

“It’s one of those things that is not going to change the world, but it gives you an awareness about what you consume,” said McLauchlin. She would like to see manufacturers use less bubble and Styrofoam packaging.

— Anna Marie D’Angelo

| veveceeessoeeeseees THE 3 R’S OF TODAY -s00s+sseeeveeeens WASTE REDUCTION, RE-USE & RECYCLING

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STAND? re oe ». <. §, UNCOMMITTED DOUBTERS (15%) You recyde more then the other groups, but your interes? sfops there. You are ” probably a middle-aged male with young children. 6. DISINTERESTED SKEPTICS (16%) You are not Involved in waste reduction and tive highly skeptial of the environmental effectiveness of these practices. Yoo are most Skely a yorng mole with little education ~ Gnd alow income. You probably

Sunday, April 20, 1997 — North Shore News — 3

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

LESLEY McLauchlin has been happily doing her recycling bit for 16 years. The North Vancouver resident is pleased that she doesn’t have to go off the North Shore any more on her monthly recycling day.

Recycling helps save resources

From page 1

people buy.

The depot’s bins are painted in the same bright blue as the local curbside recycling blue boxes The bins’ contents are trucked away regularly to recycling companies in the Lower Mainland,

The companies prepare the material for sale. In the case of newspapers, they are trucked to Coquitlam where a company de-inks and cleans up the pulp fibre for sale to MacMillan Bloedel and Fletcher Challenge, said Johns.

Plastic pop bottles are used to make carpet backing, sleep- ing bag insulation and fibre fill for jackets.

Plastic milk bottles are processed into pellets and used to make plastic bags and non-food containers such as motor oil bordes. The manufacturers are in the United States and in eastern Canada.

In 1996, the North Shore Recycling Program’s gross cost was $1.8 million. Revenue from recycled items was $450,000 and savings from diverting the items from the North Shore transfer station was pegged at $600,000.

Johns said the program’s net cost to taxpayers is small. For example the program is less than 2% of North Vancouver District’s annual budget. In North Vancouver City, a taxpay- crs spends $24.50 a year for the program, said Johns.

Since 1990, 53,000 tonnes of material have been recycled through the North Shore Recycling Program. A garbage truck is charged $65 per tonne to tip its compacted load, which weighs between 10 and 12 tonnes.

Johns pointed out the recycling program also saves resources and benefits the environment.

Expanded curbside recycling, he said, will like take place in the fall or carly next year. Rigid plastics (margarine tubs and yogurt containers) will be picked up and a “yellow bag” will be provided for mixed paper (magazines, junk mail).

West Vancouver currently has a three-can garbage coliec- tion limit. North Vancouver City will have a three-can limit with $1 tags on any additional garbage starting in May. Johns said North Vancouver District is trying out a voluntary three- can limit in May with the slogan “Think three.”

“Throughout North America, user fees have proven to drastically increase recycling participation and reduce peo- ple’s garbage generation,” said Johns. ;

A recent Recycling Program proposal to get rid of the free yard waste disposal (up to 100 kg) at the transfer station was not accented by North Shore officials.

Another idea was to have charity groups set up chippers in parks in the spring and fall so that residents, by donations, could more easily dispose of yard wimmings. Recycling Program staff are currently looking at the cost of curbside yard waste collection.

Johns said the expanded bottle deposit program recently announced by the provincial government will reduce blue box costs here. The expanded bottle deposit is set to start next year to cover wine, spirits and juice bottles (all “ready to drink” bev- erage containers except for milk and milk products).

Back at the depot, the biggest concern is contamination of the bins. A facial tissue in a pile of magazines will contain- ment the whole load, resulting in a lot of wasted work for many residents and loss of revenue for the depot. :

Pizza boxes are a source of food contamination and are not welcome at the recycling depot, stress depot operators.

Depot operators advise people to sort their recyclables before they go to the depot and to be aware that there is no place to leave garbage. (The transfer station is across the street.)

“I think recycling makes you think about what you are doing. And every little bit helps,” said Offers.