In Saskatchewan, all of the containers that these liquids come in require you to pay a deposit when you purchase them. That means that every single empty container has some value. Some people don't care about that value, and even though we have recycling containers throughout the park, they toss their empties into the garbage. Others simply take their empties home with them. But, a lot of people donate the empties to the proper bins, and the benefit goes directly to the park.
After a busy weekend, we have a lot of empties to sort through...
Each one of these bags contains a mixture of cans, bottles, and tetra pak containers.
In Saskatchewan, recycling is done by a company called SARCAN. There are 71 SARCAN depots in the province. Most individuals can bring in small quantities of empties, stand in line, and get their money back in cash up to $75 at a time.
Because we are an organization and have higher quantities, Ruth makes an appointment once per week and we are served at our appointment time without having to wait in line. In order to do this, our recycling has to be sorted ahead of time.
Ruth, doing some recycling sorting.
Bottles of similar types have to be together.
As do cans, plastic bottles, and tetra paks of different sizes.
Once a week when Ruth goes into town to do groceries, we load up the little blue car with as much recycling as he can carry. I even remove the rear seat and parcel shelf so that he can carry more.
The problem is that during busy season we produce more recycling in one week than the little blue car can carry in his weekly trip.
But that backload of empties will deplete itself over the next few weeks until the end of the season.
The little blue car is full!
It's amazing, but we can often carry close to $200 worth of empties when Ruth goes by herself. We also need room for the the grocery coolers and our own personal recycling.
At the SARCAN depot, our haul is ready to be counted.
Here Muriel and Gareth count each item individually.
Here's what happens to those empty bottles after the fact.
Last year, we delivered $2,511 worth of empties back to the depot.
This money goes directly back into the park operating funds, and the program keeps thousands of empty containers out of the landfill.
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It is amazing how cheap these little remote control helicopters have become.
Almost free!
We deposit our return monies directly into our weekend away fund lol. It's nice to see that a good chunk of money goes back to the park though, a side benefit from (a few) drunken campers.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to set aside that money for something enjoyable. :-)
DeleteYes, the park gets a nice chunk back and normally the money is put towards a special project such as the children's playground that was put in a couple of years ago.
It sure is nice to see a plan come to fruition!
ReplyDeleteSaskatchewan has a great recycling program, not only for beverage containers but also for plastic, paper,cardboard and tin. We unfortunately don't do the other recycling at the park just because it would be way to hard and not everyone recycles anyway but at least we are keeping the landfill free of some garbage.
DeleteThat sounds like a pretty good deal for the park, nice that they leave them there.
ReplyDeleteIt's extra work for us but definitely worth it for the park.
DeleteI love when a park recycles. I think we should make a law in the US that everyone must recycle. Our garbage company here at the house makes it so easy. We just throw everything in one big bin. They separate it for us. It costs us $4 extra a month. What a deal to help the environment!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately making a law for everyone to recycle just won't work! How would it get policed? I really wish people would just recycle on their own for the good of the earth.
DeleteSounds like a great deal where you live. I think the biggest problem is people don't want to sort or that it takes up too much of their "precious" space but by just putting all the recycling into one box for the garbage company to sort makes it sounds just a little easier for people.
We recycle here are the park also. Various clubs such as the wood working club, or the quilting club or the arts & crafts club take turns sorting the recycling and taking it in and they get the money to fund their various projects. I know that some months especially over the summer they can make $3000.00 and more.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a lot of money coming in each month, or at least the busy months. You also have a much bigger park than us. Glad that they have someone there to do it and that the extra money goes to the various projects there.
DeleteOver 500 units here so thru the summer that makes for lots of recycling.
DeleteI use it to buy dog and horse feed :-)
ReplyDeleteGood for you, it is always nice to set it aside for something. I am sure the dog/s and horse/s are happy you recycle. ;-)
DeletePS btw I guess right today where your picture was taken...I take a guess and then scroll down to see if I was right.
ReplyDeleteI do much the same thing myself! :-) Do you just guess the country or the actually area or a combination of?
DeleteCountry if I think it was taken in Mexico, South Korea, Canada or Columbia and European. However if I think I can pin point exactly where I've seen and read about the picture, I'll definitely guess the area...i.e. today's post was taken in Sedona, AZ :-)
DeleteI figured that might be the way you did it. When you aren't familiar with a country it would be hard to pin point it to an actual area. Because I have been there, I always try to think of the actually place!
Deletethats quite the piles of recycling Ruth has to sort!! Doug built a recycle table for me to do the sorting..works great...will post a picture in my next blog entry..We too, go to the recycle place once a week...amazing how much the campers drink!!
ReplyDeleteI didn't do all of it. In the first picture, that was all the recycling from our August Long Weekend which is our busiest weekend. Valine and I did that together. In the other pictures most of the bags have already been sorted they are just waiting to be hauled off to SARCAN.
DeleteGood to see that your park recycles too! Sorting takes awhile to do but it is really worth it in the long run both for the park and for our earth. :-)
I'm amazed at the amount of stuff recycled!
ReplyDeleteYep, there is an awful lot of it but it's nice to know that it is recycled rather than thrown into the landfill! :-)
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