Visit the Royal Ontario Museum and learn how biodiversity is being impacted by waste — and how we can minimize those environmental impacts.

Because of public works, by Jannie Ho, for National Public Works Week 2013

One of my favourite books is In The Skin of the Lion, by famed Canadian author Michael Ondaatje.  Part of this excellent novel narrates the lives of the workers who helped build some of Toronto’s most iconic — and important — public infrastructure projects: the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant and Bloor Street Viaduct.

This compelling novel reminds me of the over 450 men and women who, every day, work in Halton Region’s Public Works department to preserve environmental resources, protect human health, and effectively move people and goods.

Because of public works, your recycling, composting and garbage is collected and processed; you have safe, clean, tested drinking water; wastewater from your homes is treated; and you have safe regional roads to drive on.  Public works is part of our lives each and every day.  Public works help keep us and the environment safe.

The five divisions that make up Halton’s Region’s Public Works department are guided by core values, including excellent customer service, community trust and continuous improvements.

Within the department’s Waste Management Services division, we’ve seen these core values in action: over 50,000 Blue Boxes were picked up by residents in March 2013 at eight successful events; 95% of users rate their customer service experiences at the Halton Waste Management Site as excellent or good; and new materials were recently added to the Blue Box, thereby decreasing the amount of waste headed to our landfill.

To help raise awareness about public works, each year, municipalities across North America celebrate National Public Works Week.  This year’s event runs from May 19 to 25, 2013, and is coordinated by the American Public Works Association and is supported by the Canadian Public Works Association.

Halton’s Public Works staff will be recognizing this week, and I encourage you to do the same.  So this week, when you drive down a regional road, enjoy a glass of water, use the toilet, or have your recycling collected, remember, it’s all because of public works.

About this guest blogger:

Mitch Zamojc, Guest Blogger

Mitch Zamojc is the Commissioner of Halton Region’s Public Works department.  Mitch has been recognized as a Top Leader in the Public Works field by both the American Public Works Association and the Ontario Public Works Association.  Prior to joining Halton in 2008, he was the Commissioner of Public Works for the Region of Peel.

For many of us, it is also the start of summer road trips.  Whether a trip to the cottage or exploring Canada, here are some tips that can help make the trip greener.

• Make sure your car is in good working order.  If you need to top up any fluids, make sure to dispose of used fluids and containers properly. 
• Pack a cooler for snacks and drinks with reusable containers and use reusable ice packs.
• If cooking with propane or other combustible gas cylinders, return empty containers for proper disposal.
• When stopping for a coffee break, bring your own travel container.  There are travel beverage containers that can work for both hot and cold beverages.
• If you are keeping the children entertained with electronic devices, use reusable batteries instead of single-use batteries.  Dispose of spent batteries responsibly – they don’t go in the garbage.
• Please don’t litter.  Remember to “leave no trace.”  Keep waste materials in your car until you come to a recycling container.  When hiking, bring any waste back with you for proper sorting.
• Remember to drive safe!

You can even consider leaving your car behind!  Parkbus operates bus routes to popular camping destinations in Algonquin Provincial Park, Killarney Provincial Park, French River Provincial Park, and more.

While out enjoying the open road this summer with friends and family, do your part and help keep our environment green and beautiful.

International Compost Awareness Week

While every week is a Compost Week, reflecting the fact that organic residuals are created every day — whether in food production and consumption, through other life happenings as well as when gardens are active… the emphasis on the first full week of May is on “awareness” of the potential that compost offers to our environment, the health and vitality of our soils and in turn local food production as well as job creation.

The theme for this year’s celebrations is “Feed the Soil… COMPOST.”

Soil is the basis of life on our planet; everything and everyone draws strength from the productivity and health of our soil. And yet, it is largely ignored and more often than not, taken for granted.

It can take well over 500 years to create a couple of centimetres of soil, a composite material made up of different-sized rock and mineral particles as well as decomposed organic matter.  Annually returning organic matter, or compost, back to the earth provides the means to revitalize and condition the soil, helping to provide the structure and nutrients needed for plants to grow and flourish.

The development of organics recycling and composting has come a long, long way since our first Compost Awareness Week in 1995. Back then, there was a small band of people and organizations across Canada who were valiantly overcoming the many “No… it can’t be done” or “No… not now” that was the usual order of the day.

Today, organics are the number one material being recycled in Canada, and with over 40% of Canada’s waste stream being filled with organic material, there is a lot more to do before the job is done.

Sometimes the task ahead seems overwhelming and far too “uphill” — but then the gravity of people’s individual decisions kicks in every time someone “votes” by deciding to take their organic wastes to their own backyard composter or to be part of their municipality’s curbside pick-up program rather than having them buried in a landfill and creating all kinds of environmental negatives.

Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Gord Miller, gets ready to use some compost

As part of our festivities last week, a special event was held in the backyard office garden of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Gord Miller. Together with the Master Gardeners of Ontario, Landscape Ontario as well as local food and compost advocates, the garden and lawn was given a “soil-lift,” aerated and amended with compost created from GreenCart programs in Ontario.

This is just one of the many ways people are standing together “on firm ground” and declaring their love of the earth — by making compost and returning it to our soil.

About this guest blogger:

Susan Antler, Guest Blogger

Susan Antler serves as the Executive Director of the Compost Council of Canada, a non-profit, member-driven organization dedicated to the advancement of composting and compost usage across Canada. Susan has an MBA in Marketing from Queen’s University.

Compost is a great alternative to fertilizers.

This is a call out to residents to ensure we are all treating the GreenCart with the respect it deserves.  Many residents are unaware that the material you throw in your GreenCart is being turned into beautiful compost.  This compost is vital to our local farmers, allowing them to use compost instead of chemical based fertilizers.  The program becomes a win – win for everyone, and a great closed loop cycle.  Residents help to save on landfill space and feel good about contributing to waste diversion; and farmers get the benefit of using natural fertilizer to help their crops grow.  This makes it really important for residents to make sure they are placing the right items in the GreenCart, so we can have the highest quality finished compost.

Halton’s GreenCart material is sent to the City of Hamilton’s Central Composting Facility, which is a state of the art indoor aerobic facility that can compost your GreenCart material in 21 days.  This accelerated process allows for a quick turn around of all your old food to be broken down into compost, a very rich, high nutrient soil that can act as a natural fertilizer. The compost produced from the City of Hamilton’s facility is mainly used on farmlands in the area.  Local farmers now have a product that will naturally fertilize their crops, and it helps to maintain moisture during the hot summer heat.

Since the compost is being placed on their fields, farmers are very particular about their product.  Strict testing guidelines are in place to ensure only the best compost goes out.  Just last year, new guidelines came out from The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. These guidelines help municipalities and compost facilities produce compost material that can be used in various applications.  The cleaner the material, the higher the compost grade and the more use you get out of the material.  Compost is now graded on an AA, A and B rating scale.  To achieve AA status, there has to be little to no contamination in the final compost product.

Remove all packaging before putting food in the GreenCart.

Halton and Hamilton’s material is currently graded at the highest level, but with the new guidelines we may find it more difficult to achieve this.  We are still finding unacceptable materials in the GreenCart program which cause contamination and affects the final compost grade.  We sometimes find batteries, utensils, and medical waste, but our biggest issue is food packaging; plastic bags and containers, glass bottles and jars, metal food cans, and smaller items like produce stickers, elastic bands, and bread tags.

So I want to remind residents to take that extra step.  We are doing so well with the GreenCart program, we have great diversion and participation rates, but we really need to make sure that we are taking our food waste out of any packing.  We have to try to get past the “yuck” factor of touching our old food.  Take the time to pull that mushy cucumber out of the plastic bag, and scrap the salsa from that glass jar, it may seem gross while you do it, but you can quickly and easily clean your hands – it’s not that easy to clean that plastic bag or glass jar out of our compost.  And, for a lot of those food containers, they can be quickly rinsed and now placed in our Blue Box program for recycling; helping to divert even more waste away from Halton’s landfill.

Actual plastic and glass found in final compost.

And don’t forget to look for the smaller items, they may seem insignificant, but they to end up in our final compost product.  Watch out for produce that has elastic bands and stickers, when taking bread out of plastic bags; ensure the plastic tab does not fall in the GreenCart.  These items do not compost, and quite often are found in the final compost product. Farmers do not want to use compost that contains hard plastic pieces, bits of glass, or produce stickers on their fields.

Taking a little extra time preparing our GreenCart to go out to the curb will ensure our material reaches the highest compost grade level, allowing it to be fully utilized on farmer’s fields.  Give yourself some extra time on garbage night and get the family involved, please remove food from all its packaging before placing it in the GreenCart.  And give your GreenCart a quick check before bringing it out to the curb, looking for items that should not be inside. Your extra effort will go a long way in ensuring Halton’s compost will continue to be used in a closed loop system.

Through a unique program, Stream of Dreams, we encourage residents to reduce their consumption, properly dispose of their waste, and talk to their neighbours about keeping our creeks clean.

The Stream of Dreams is a nationwide water education program that got its start in Burnaby, British Columbia in 1998.

It was started by an eight year old girl, Chanel, and her mother, Louise, in response to a devastating event in their local creek. Chanel and Louise were out for their routine walk along Byrne Creek when they noticed something was terribly wrong: the once clear water was now a milky white, with thousands of dead fish floating at the surface. They found out this was caused by a toxic mix of chemicals that was traced back to a storm drain.

In response to this, they partnered with the Stream Keepers Association (a group of local scientists) and created a water education program where participants learn about water protection, and paint wooden fish which are installed on a chain link fence to create a mural as a reminder of our commitment to protect the environment.

This program has now spread across Canada with over 120,000 students participating and protecting their local creeks!

The Stream of Dreams mural at Halton Region’s Household Hazardous Waste Depot

There are over 40 Stream of Dreams murals in Halton, with more on the way.  There’s even one at the Household Hazardous Waste Depot at the Halton Waste Management Site.  This was painted by residents who attended the Site’s 20th anniversary celebration.

I feel so lucky to be able to support these communities which are committed to protecting the environment, and forge some great friendships in the process. I love hearing the kids and teachers respond to the program and become passionate about protecting the area we live in, not to mention the beautiful murals they create!

So keep an eye out… there might be some dreamfish flowing your way this spring!

About this guest blogger:

Elizabeth Wren, Guest Blogger

Elizabeth Wren currently coordinates the Stream of Dreams program for Conservation Halton, where she has worked for the past six years. She has over 10 years of experience working at various outdoor education centres and conservation authorities, along with two years teaching overseas. Elizabeth developed her passion for the environment while completing an Earth Sciences degree at Laurentain University and continues to seek out unique environmental programs to participate in and share with others.

Plastic packaging being sorted at a materials recovery facility

Most of us are familiar with the materials accepted by our municipal curbside recycling programs, items like paper, cardboard, steel and aluminum cans, and certain plastic packaging But did you ever wonder what happens to those materials that are a bit trickier to recycle like  plastic containers contaminated with oil?

Pnewko Brothers in Vaughan, Ontario, has established a niche market for collecting materials that are less desirable or difficult to collect in municipal curbside recycling programs.  Plastic oil bottles, jugs and pails collected at Halton Region’s Household Hazardous Waste Depot are recycled by Pnewko.  Each bottle, job and pail they collect has to be disassembled to ensure that no contaminates are entering the recycling process.  The oily plastic is used to make new plastic products–products that require the plastic to be more rubbery and flexible, including impact posts, curbs and landscape tiles.

Some of the plastic pails collected from Halton’s Household Hazardous Waste Depot, ready for recycling

Did you know that old broken Blue Boxes and apartment building-sized Blue Bin are also recyclable?  But not in the Blue Box — they’re too big for our regular recycling facility to process.  Blue Boxes are shredded by Pnewko Brothers into plastic chips that are  used in the manufacturing of new plastic products like Halton’s Blue Boxes.  Apartment building-size Blue Bins are also completely disassembled and the components are recovered to make new products.  Halton’s new 360 litre (95 gallon) Blue Bins for apartments and schools are manufactured in Canada using some plastic recovered by Pnewko Brothers.

Pnewko Brothers operate on a full-circle processing system: 99% of all products that enter their facility are recovered and recycled.

Chipped plastics will be made into new Blue Boxes

Remember, if you ever have any questions whether a plastic packaging is accepted in Halton’s Blue Box program, use our Put Waste In Its Place tool!

There are many things you can do to ensure both your burial and funeral (they are not the same thing) are environmentally friendlier than those of past generations.

Since it’s advisable that people plan ahead to prepare for their death, the question is, what can you do today?

Choose a Greener  Cemetery

There are a few major factors to look at when searching for greener cemetery solutions–the most important being pesticide use.  Burlington Memorial Gardens (at Dundas Street and Guelph Line) abides by strict environmental regulations and must pass an extensive yearly government environmental audit.  Their tranquil location bordering the Niagara Escarpment and the protected lands of the Bruce Trail means that they will always remain pesticide free.   The grass is left to be watered naturally and will lie dormant during the dry season returning to its lush green when the rainy season starts.  The native plants and flower beds are watered using irrigated pond water and the park-like setting is known to attract visits from local deer and the odd wild fox.   Visitors to Burlington Memorial Gardens are strongly encouraged to make environmental choices when it comes to their floral tributes as well.   Natural flowers won’t leave behind any environmentally unsound materials such as synthetics, plastics or wire, and are strongly encouraged during the spring, summer and early fall mowing season.

This casket uses unbleached cotton, and doesn’t use any glue, metal or varnish.

Choose a Greener Funeral Home

Burlington Memorial Gardens also offers ‘eco-friendly’ funeral options through their funeral home Dodsworth & Brown.   Families wanting a greener funeral will choose recycled paper for their program printing, online guest books and obituaries, botanical-based embalming, and caskets made from all natural wood and cotton materials that use no glues or metal fastenings.

What about Cremation?  

Today’s cremation processes use natural gas and not fossil fuels for the burning process.  Is it perfect? No, but as with most green initiatives, the technology is moving in the right direction. Also, because there is a smaller amount of land space required for cremation burial, most families still find this to be the most environmentally sound option available.

In the end, whatever you decide, the best thing to do for you or a loved one, is to speak with a licensed Cemetery or Funeral Director to review all of your options.  The conversation you have with a professional will help you and your family make the most informed decision possible.

About this guest blogger:

Christie Chewka, Guest Blogger

Christie Chewka is a licensed Cemetery Director at Burlington Memorial Gardens and was born and raised in Lowville, Ontario.

The HaltonRecycles team share their thoughts on what Earth Day means to them:

Lindsay: Earth Day is a day to celebrate our beautiful planet and promote why leading an environmentally friendly lifestyle is so important. Canada is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and we are surrounded by countless natural wonders; some of which have been damaged due to environmental negligence. Earth Day is a day to educate others on small, yet effective changes that we can make in our everyday lives to reduce our environmental impact, and bring awareness to current environmental issues. “Knowledge is power,” and Earth Day is a great time to increase our knowledge and make a change!

Nicole: What does Earth Day mean to me? Well its one day; or potentially a week, of celebrating the Earth, and all the ways we can preserve and admire its beauty.  It’s the one time of year where schools, businesses and organizations publicly discuss ways they will help save the planet — I guess for me, I wish it wasn’t just one day.  Although I do see the benefit of opening people’s minds, and providing opportunities for people to participate in programs and discussions, I hope that on this one day, we are speaking to them in such a way that they decide to change their lifestyles forever.  Awareness is key to help change behaviour.  However, changing your behaviours for one day isn’t enough to help preserve our environment. I believe we need to make people aware of our changing environment more regularly, and have opportunities for people to help and participate more regularly. Hopefully then, Earth day will turn into something we that carries on throughout the year.

Shirley: Earth Day is an opportunity to recognize all the amazing natural spaces on earth and why it is important to protect them. The earth sustains life and we need to remember to tread lightly.

Allison: I have been celebrating April 22 for 25 years, mainly because it’s my birthday (or should I say, b”earth”day) but also because I love everything about the environment. As a child, this day was always fun-filled with friends, games, presents and Mom’s traditional birthday “Dirt Cake.” Every year, I make a conscious effort to celebrate Earth Day/my birthday by getting outside with my family and friends. Whether we’re hiking, or playing a game of disc golf, I think it’s important to be outside with nature on April 22. Earth Day to me, is a day to reflect on your impact on the environment and create new ways to reduce your footprint, one step at a time.

John: Last summer I presented at Wastecon in Washington DC.  During my explorations of the city, I stumbled upon Earth Day Park.  To be honest, it wasn’t particularly impressive — just a small park with trees and benches, tucked in among the plethora of government buildings.  But I think that’s why I liked it so much — to a hectic world, this hint of nature is a reminder that there’s an environment that needs to be explored, conserved and enjoyed.  And while every day is Earth Day, having one particular day a year serves as a reminder that we are part of the environment and we need to celebrate, honour and respect this connection.

Stacey: Earth Day is usually family time spent with my husband and kids cleaning up our local park along with the route to the park.  We usually do a cleanup on our daily walks with the dogs, but this is an opportunity to really take the time to check the roadside, bushes and park area.  It is always amazing how much we collect.  It is great to see all the neighbours out and about taking the time as well to participate.  This is a time for my kids to learn that actions can affect the environment and that we all need to take the time to help the earth from recycling to clean ups.  Take the time today to give the Earth a hug and do a spring clean up!

Ben: If I can raise awareness of the environment for my kids by spending Earth Day enjoying the outdoors with them and having my family experience what I’ve grown up cherishing, then that’s what I think is the most important thing we need to take from Earth Day.  If we can preserve that connection with nature for future generations then our planet has a bright and healthy future.

Joyce: Earth Day provides a day to acknowledge the impacts of human behaviour on the natural environment.  It also gives us an opportunity to reflect on what Christopher Stone famously wrote in his essay, Should Trees Have Standing?

Andrea: I have long been a supporter of the Earth — I knew I wanted to help save it by the time I was in high school. That was a while ago and environmental conservation was definitely not in the forefront of society’s priorities, we had no “green” clubs or environmental education classes — the closest we came to that was geography, and of course the one day a year that people did actually think about it — Earth Day.  Environmental awareness is definitely making headway by leaps and bounds and that makes me happy. I’m pleased to see that a larger portion of society has become environmentally conscious on a daily basis, which is a combination of the younger generation bringing that preservation passion with them as they climb the corporate ladder, as well as people finally realizing there is no other choice. To me, Earth Day represents a day of environmental education, a day people come together to help clean up the messes of the year, and a day that attempts to get the non-conformists to conform and hop on the “green” bandwagon, because really who better to save the planet than those that destroyed it in the first place.

Walter: Earth Day did not register with me until perhaps the early 1990s. That was over two decades after it was originated in 1970. Within that span of time the public hearings for the Halton Waste Management Site were taking place and these were eventually followed by a green light to build, by 1992, what is currently Halton’s only operating landfill. How could I have known when I went off to university in the early 1990s that there were engineers and construction crews carving up a piece of old farm land to make the landfill I work at today in Milton? As I studied to get knowledge that would turn out to actually be useful and applicable there, I do not recall any sirens going off that told me to keep going, stay the course, we need you. The path from learning about the environment and working to preserve it was not a straight line, but I am here now and that is all that matters. As a student, almost every time April 22 came around I was either cramming for or writing an exam, else I was packing up my belongings and loading them into an old rusty car, moving to my next adventure, either another co-op job, or back to school for more of the same. It wasn’t that simple to take time out for Earth Day, at least for me it wasn’t. Entering the workforce did not make it any easier either. Most places I worked at didn’t seem to make a special effort to acknowledge Earth Day, but I did hear about it on the news a lot. There was always a sense of being disconnected from it though. Like there were these other people, out there, doing good, making a difference. I imagined them as faceless do-gooders, toiling away at non-glamourous jobs, sometimes just spokes in a wheel doing their little, but important part in contributing to a positive change. I suppose now I have finally come to the point where I don’t need to imagine what these people look like any longer. I see them everyday I go in to work and every time I look at myself in the mirror. There we are (in varying degrees of glamourousness), still working, still hoping to make a difference for our planet, on this Earth Day and (with hard work) everyday. Now, does that sound like a siren going off? Probably not. But, if you are out there reading this, struggling to find meaning in your earth friendly studies, please hear this: Keep Going. Stay The Course. We Need You. You may not realize it, but we are waiting for your help. We can’t do it all alone and we’re all in this together. Hope you have a glamourous and green Earth Day everyone.

A lot of these people very proudly exclaim “I recycle so much!  Each week I put out five Blue Boxes and they’re almost always overflowing.”

Outwardly, I’m very excited about this great effort to recycle, but privately, my heart sinks a little bit when I think about all that waste.

Are you consuming too much just because you have a Blue Box?

Remember, the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) isn’t just a slogan.  It’s the hierarchical order created to help guide the management our waste.  So while recycling is great, it is only the third step.  We must reduce and reuse first.

Let me be very clear: if you have acceptable materials, I want you to put them in your Blue Box for recycling.  Recycling makes a huge difference, and everyone needs to participate.

But a question does need to be asked: “Why do you have so much recycling in the first place?”

Are you buying a lot of single use, disposable items?  What about items with excess packaging? Could you drink from the tap and avoid plastic water bottles?

Some weeks, my house only has one half-full Blue Box.  We don’t have a lot of papers because we don’t subscribe to any print newspapers (I read news online) and we have paperless billing for almost all services (hydro, phone, etc.).  We don’t buy bottled water in my family, and very rarely do we have pop cans or bottles (trying to avoid unnecessary sugar).

Interestingly, a recent study indicates that when people have access to recycling, they tend to consume and waste more.  Basically, individuals feel less guilty about wasting if they can recycle something.

If you have items that can be recycled, then recycle them.  But take a moment to look at your consumption and generation of those items.  Is it truly necessary?