Canadians have a good track record for recycling at home with curbside pickup and deposit-return programs in place across the country. But most of us are unfamiliar with how recycling works and how we can take our good recycling habits on the road.
Paul Edney, director of Inspire Community and co-author of bestselling book Change the World for 10 Bucks, says, “Canadians are doing a great job at home making sure recyclable materials don’t end up in their garbage cans. But there are a few extra tricks we can all learn to make sure each item we recycle has the greatest impact.”
Edney recently created an online recycling tool and resource, supported by the Aquafina brand, aquafinatracker.ca, which provides important tips for Canadians to boost their recycling savvy and make the most of their efforts.
According to Edney, recycling awareness and education is critical to success.
“If we all understood the impact of recycling one plastic bottle, we’d probably be a lot better at making sure more of them stay out of the waste stream.”
Behind recycling
• Recycling works. It takes 70 per cent less energy to create a new bottle from recycled plastic than from raw materials.
• Take the cap off. It takes more than 100 times more energy to crush a plastic bottle with the cap on.
• Crush it. You can fit five times as many plastic bottles in a truck if they are crushed.
