Flying Pigs Recycling Blog Canmore, Alberta

Global innovations in waste management‏

Thea Harvey — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:50:56 +0000

Sometimes it is easy to become discouraged when we see so much bad news about the environement. We see world leaders making poor decisions in regards to solutions for sustainable energy, we see corporations producing products with no regard whatsoever to their impact on communities and the landfills in which they will ultimately end up, and we see communities in developing nations that are overrun with waste, much of it shipped there from wealthy, developed nations. It feels like it’s a never ending problem and no one’s bothering to think of a solution for all the garbage, right?
Wrong! All over the world brilliant methods for minimizing the impact of waste on our precious planet are being developed! Here are just afew examples:

1. Zero Waste.
The philosophy of Zero Waste is to produce goods that have no hazardous, unusable byproducts. Zero Waste is precycling on a global scale. Although this system is still not practiced on a global scale, some areas are adopting the Zero Waste philosophy. Scotland announced plans to work towards Zero Waste in 2008, with the target to achieve the goal set for 2025.

2. Anaerobic Digestion.
Anaerobic digestion is the degradation of waste by microorganisms in an environement with no oxygen. Organic solid waste and waste water of almost any kind can be broken down using this process, and the byproduct is fertilizer and biogas which can be converted into energy. Anaerobic digestion is therefore a renewable source of energy.

3. Waste to Energy.
Waste to energy uses a method called plasma arc gasification. Plasma torches are used to incinerate liquid or solid waste, and these torches operate at the same temperatures as the sun’s surface! The waste is converted into a synthetic gas( syngas), which is then converted into energy, and there is no remaining byproduct.

4. Waste to Fuel.
Biofuel is the most common form of waste to fuel. It encompasses a range of different fuels derived from organic matter which can be used to fuel vehicles of all kinds. Biogas, a product of Anaerobic digestion, and syngas, a product of Waste to energy, are types of biofuel.

So there are just a handful of innovative solutions in waste management. When creative minds with long term vision come together, there is no ceiling on what can be accomplished in this field. Anyone can have an idea that, if pursued, can have significant positive impact on the future of our planet and how we manage our resources. The only limitation to innovation in waste management is lack of imagination!

What is Precycling?

Thea Harvey — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:08:17 +0000

Recycling is a great practice to minimize waste from going to landfill, but it is just one aspect of “Reduce, Reuse & Recycle”. To compliment recycling, we must reduce, or precycle. So what exactly is precycling? Precycling means preventing recycling, meaning buying and using products that produce little or no waste whenever possible. So how do we find convenient ways to precycle? Well, here are some helpful tips:

1.) Bring reusable bags with you when you shop and eliminate the need for plastic shopping bags.
2.) Buy bulk items and store them at home in reusable containers.
3.) Always make sure the packaging of items you buy is recyclable and check the number within the recycling symbol: # 1 & 2 are the most easily recycled materials.
4.) Try to buy as locally as possible. Always ask yourself, ” How far did this product travel to get to this store? ” Sometimes a product that was made thousands of miles away may have a cheaper dollar value than a local product but the true cost is all the fossil fuels that were used to import that product from far away. Think globally, buy locally!
5.) Buy no styrofoam. Styrofoam is made of hazardous materials that are the most difficult to breakdown in landfills. We as consumers have the power to show corporations what to produce and what to phase out. If we show the corporations that we will not buy products packaged in styrofoam, they will stop making it.

At the end of the day always just do your best! The planet is a vast living organism. Be good to yourselves, to your fellow humans, and to your planet that sustains us all. Happy precycling!

Think globally, act locally!

Jerard — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:18:19 +0000

Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged when we think about all the ecological challenges we face on a global scale. Sometimes we might even think: “Nothing I do will ever make a positive impact on the environment”. This is simply not the case. Doing your best to reduce, re-use and recycle your household waste does help your community, and when many households recycle, reduce and re-use it has a positive impact provincially, nationally, and eventually globally! Overcrowded landfills are a worldwide problem. Landfills are so full of “garbage”, much of it which could have been recycled, that they are anaerobic, meaning there is no oxygen within the compact waste material, and as such it will never biodegrade. When you pay attention to what you consume(pre-cycle), and you give what waste you do produce a second life( re-cycle), you help cut down on the amount of material that goes to landfill. We know that on an industrial scale recycling plants face logistical challenges; sometimes the recyclable material must be transported long distances to be processed, sometimes post-consumer recycled plastics get processed improperly and make their way into the oceans and other sensitive ecosystems. However, although the system is not perfect, it makes alot more sense to recycle than to just let it all pile up in a landfill. And in my humble opinion, alot of the plastic in our oceans, rivers and other ecosystems is not from recycling gone awry, it’s from people and corporations with no regard for how to properly dispose of or re-use their waste. There are many people and groups the world over doing exciting, positive things in the field of waste management. More and more people are creating innovative ways to reduce, re-use and recycle. So keep the faith, and do your part. Think globally, act locally!