Waste Free Work Place
Carmanah Technologies Corp. has gone Waste Free. Through an extensive recycling and composting program, we have very little waste that is sent to the Hartland landfill. All of our large waste bins have been replaced with mini bins for items that can’t be recycled or composted, such as tape. Our lunchrooms have been set up with all the bins necessary to accomplish this and we have set aside some storage space as a collection area to hold large amounts of recycling prior to vender pick up. Going Waste Free was not too difficult; once the bins and systems are in place, only an hour or two a week is needed for maintenance. This time is more than offset by the 25% reduction in the cost of the old waste disposal system and the diversion from the Hartland landfill is priceless.
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Great presentation this AM, Allan. Carmanah should be very proud of themselves! If anyone would like to see the presentation from today’s Sustainability Round Table, please go to: http://www.viatec.ca/document/2010/09/carmanah-getting-waste-free
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Thanks Deanne and it was great to have everyone over. Thought I would share the latest news with you all. We finally have our new garbage bin (96 gallons), which replaces our big old 4 yard bin that was outside (roughly 807.90 gallons), and it has only been emptied once in just over a month! The bin was full so we still have a little ways to go before we’re 100% waste free. However, we averaged only 2.27kg (5lb) of solid waste per day biased on 24 working days. That’s for 85+ staff which is only 0.026kg/0.058lb or 26 grams per person. So what does 26 grams look like? How about one and a half peanut butter cups? Of course the paper cup holders are compostable and both the cardboard tray and plastic wrapper are recyclable so it was a waste free treat, too!
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C CDid you make use of services such as Pacific Mobile Depots for materials such as styrofoam?
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Yes we use PMD for recycling the more difficult items. As well, PMD’s customer service seems to have improved over the last year.
Cheers,
Allan
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Great to hear, Allan. I know the tech park is thinking of going waste free. Would you be available to meet with the Facility Superintendent, Uwe Bartley? He has some concerns (ie. rats in the compost, higher costs to tenants, piles of recycling in the service areas) about going waste free in such a large facility…perhaps talking to a Facility Manager who has done it will help VITP get this program initiated. I know that a number of tenants want this and are willing to train their staff to make it happen.