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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1999-03-24, Page 66 qtr Time;-aAdvo”,te Wednesday, March 24, 1999 Bluewater Recycling: helping our environment John Bruls, a sorter at Bluewater, works on the fibre/newspaperline removing contaminants like aluminum and plastic bags. Mathew Keeley, trea- surer of Bluewater Recycling Association, stands with a bound stack of aluminum cans, Bluewater's main source of revenue. Other prod- ucts such as oil jugs are tough to sell. Material travels up a fibre/news- paper conveyor belt where sorters will sep- arate it from non -paper prod- ucts. By Scott Nixon TIMES-ACVOCATE STAFF HURON.PARK — What happens to your recyclables after they are picked up at the curb? Well, the T -A found out a couple of weeks ago, with a tour through the Bluewater Recycling Association in Huron Park. According to Bluewater treasurer Mathew Keeley, business for the 10 - year old company is "great, really busy. We're probably about three times as large as when we came into the park" in 1994. Bluewater started its operation in 1989 and was located at the airport in. Grand Bend until that space simply. wasn't large enough for the expanding Bluewater. The Grand. Bend facility only offered Bluewater 10,00() sq. ft., while the Huron Park site is 43,000 sq. ft. and is more convenient because its location is more central for the area Bluewater services. In addition to offering Bluewater bet- ter location and more space, Keeley said the Ontario Development Corporation (ODC) — whichowns the land and buildings in Huron Park — offered low lease rates and fixed up the building, which used to house a plastic grinding facility. Since the ODC owns the homes in Huron Park and leases them ow, Keeley said 90 per cent of Bluewater's employees live in the park. Bluewater began as a Bosanquet Township initiative and also involved Grand Bend, Forest, Arkona, Ailsa Craig, West William and Thedford. The company lost money the first year but has "just really rolled along" ever since, said, Keeley. The company has expanded to the point where it -has a $3 million yearly budget. The toughest part of the business is the fluctuating prices of commodities. The Asian crisis lastyear, for example, was tough on the recycling business. Bluewater collects waste from four counties — Huron, funding for a Lambton, Middlesex and Perth and is the major col- composting lection company in the rural facility. areas of those counties. It also accepts waste from out- side contractors from as far awl) as the Bruce Peninsula. In total, Bluewater services approximately 85,000 households. Over 10,000 tonnes of waste is handled annually by Bluewater employees. And while Bluewater is always look- ing to expand, they stay out of large markets. "We're really rural -based," said Keeley, "so we don't look to London or Salina." Recent new contracts for Bluewater include Zorra Township (near Ingersoll) and East Perth. Bluewater, explains Keeley, is a non- profit organization, without share capi- tal. Essentially, nobody owns Bluewater, but each of the 39 munici- palities involved with Bluewater has a member of council sit on Bluewater's board. From that board, a board of directors is elected, who meet once a month. Bluewater's president, Francis Veilleux, has been with the company since it began in 1989. Bluewater's goal is waste diversion or, as Keeley explains it "the less (garbage) that goes into the landfills, the better, whether it's through recy- cling or composting." What makes Bluewater unique from other waste collection companies is something called "co -collection", which Bluewater started about two years ago. Co -collection is collecting garbage and recyclables in the same truck (Bluewater has 21 trucks, most of which are co -collection trucks). The trucks have two compartments — one for recyclables and one for garbage — and the program has been adopted by 24 of the 39 municipalities Bluewater services. When the truck is full, the garbage goes to a landfill site and the recy- clables are brought back to Bluewater. This program, while being advanta- geous to residents because they can put out their blue boxes and garbage on the same day, also helps the envi- ronment. "You have one truck going down the 'road instead of two . . . so there's ;advantages of less pollution (and) less wear and tear on the road." Co -collection, Keeley said, is "very rare" among collection companies and Bluewater hopes to expand it to more communities. What also makes Bluewater unique is the material they will accept from resi- dents' blue boxes. Bluewater accepts motor oil jugs, empty paint cans, aerosol cans and boxboard, materials that many recycling collecting compa- nies won't accept. Some products, while recyclable, aren't worth collect- ing because there isn't a market. "Almost anything's recyclable, it's just whether it's economically feasible to recycle it or not," Keeley said. When the recycling trucks return to Huron Park, the material is sorted into different types such as fibres and plas- tics and then marketed. The sorting process involves person- nel and machinery — As far as the designed by Veilleux — which Tutui e is separates the different rnate- conce, ,ped, rials. Aluminum cans, for example, are compressed into Bic rlwater cubes. Recycling Newspapers, on the other Ass -,dation is hand, travel.up a long con- veyor belt to a platform look} .g a� where contaminants such as collecting plastic and boxboard are compost and is removed by sorters. waiting to see if Evidence of the sorting can government be seen in Bluewater's ware- thehouse, where, rows and rows will provide of plastic jugs and bound cans line the room. Within 24 hours, the mater- ial is processed and ready to go to market. Most of the products are bailed before leaving Huron Park but news- papers are shipped loosely. According to Keeley, most of the • material is sold throughout North America, although some goes to Asia. Aluminum cans are the easiest recy- clable product to sell, says Keeley, adding that they account for 45 per cent of Bluewater's revenue; oil jugs, on the other hand, are the toughest product to sell. What makes Bluewater successful, said Keeley, is the work of the sorters ensuring the material is separated well. Another contributing factor, though, is that residents recycle prop- erly. In order to ensure the public knows about recycling, Bluewater has a full-time educational co-ordinator on staff who acts as a tour guide at Bluewater and travels to schools. Bluewater has also started a curricu- lum guide for elementary and sec- ondary schools and also publishes ne. "Educationwslettersis a large part of what we do," Keeley said. As a result, he said the public is well aware of recycling, mostly because children learn about it at school and tell their parents. As far as the future is concerned, Bluewater Recycling Association is looking at collecting compost and is waiting to see if the government will provide funding for a composting facili- ty.