Too much is over the top! Tossing into your blue bin ALL your papers, whether laminated, plasticized, waxed and so on, or ALL your plastic containers, makes no more sense than throwing in disposable diapers, clothes or shoes. Recycling has become an art. Every citizen conscious of the environment now has an obligation to master how to do it properly. We are far from achieving this goal.

“Workers in sorting centres such as ours find almost everything in the so-called “recyclable materials” travelling on our conveyors. In reality, 12% of the materials we receive are only good for garbage”, explains Julie Gagné, spokesperson and member of the family that founded and owns Sani-Éco of Granby, the sorting centre where all the contents of the blue bins in MRC Brome-Missisquoi end up.

Julie Gagné knows what she is talking about when she answers the many “Where does it go” questions. Dozens of questions were put to her at a day long open doors forum held recently at the Granby plant. All of them were answered clearly and precisely. These exchanges with the population in our area also serve another Sani- Eco goal: use the opportunity to send important messages, such as:

1 – Separate the materials: put plastic with plastic, cardboard with cardboard etc.; separate plastic stuck to paper or cardboard. Unbundle certain materials in bulk: for example, separate the plastic from the cardboard in beverage “six-packs”; remove newspapers and circulars from their plastic publisac envelopes before putting them in your blue bin, and so on.

2 – Make bags of bags. Place plastic bags and sheets of plastic in a single transparent plastic bag and tie it tight. It will be easier to sort and will not contaminate other materials during the sorting process.

3 – Empty food from plastic containers and jars. It is not necessary to wash them thoroughly. Rinse them so there is no more than a teaspoon of food left in the containers and jars. But remember, no soiled cardboard is accepted.

What about glass? The bin for recycling glass bottles is now installed in the IGA parking lot. Signs on it explain exactly what kinds of glass are accepted and what are not.

Translation Tam Davis