Gasoline Disposal - How to be Responsible
With the soaring gasoline prices, it almost seems ridiculous to write an article about recycling gasoline. However, it is inevitable that on occasion we have some gas from the boat, lawn mower, motorcycle or some other gasoline driven motor that has become contaminated or is too old to use.
How do you get rid of this flammable liquid waste? The NRE provides a drop-off program for waste gasoline through the consumer stewardship program Product Care.
The program is free for residences to use. However, to ensure safety, there is one important guideline that must be followed to permit participation. All gasoline must be brought to the Depot in a ULC approved container. Essentially, a gas can, jerry can, or portable fuel tank, all labeled with the symbol “ULC”. The max container size permitted is 25L.
An important item to remember; the NRE will keep your gas can. This may be a little alarming to some. However, to offset the cost of your gas can, the program does provide $6.00 cash back to the owner of the container.
If parting with the gas container is too much, the NRE Market or some other thrift store can provide a low-cost replacement container that can be used to drop-off at the Depot.
Do your best to only purchase the amount of fuel you will need for the job or the season. Talk to your authorized dealer about tips on extending the life expectancy of your gasoline for that particular motor.
Waste to Energy, Is It the Answer?
Where do we put all our garbage as the landfill reaches capacity and how do we generate more electricity to an already over taxed power grid? One quick answer is, waste to energy, energy recovery or in more realistic terms, incineration.
By burning our unwanted materials heat is generated and gases are formed. Through different technologies, the gases and heat are used to generate electricity that could go towards heating and lighting our homes. Sounds like a good fit as government bodies at every level begin to feel the crunch of running out of landfill space and the stream of garbage just keeps coming.
Waste to energy (WTE) has been practiced in the past. Unfortunately, the technology of 20, 10, even 5 years ago didn’t meet the requirements of environmental regulations with respect to particulate matter escaping into the atmosphere. Today, that particulate matter is being further reduced into smaller particles as the heat is intensified and more filters are added.
There are a few problems with this solution to our garbage problem that should be looked at a little more closely. First, the exhaust from the WTE plants will still emit pollution into our air. Second, the WTE plants demand enormous supplies of garbage (fuel) to run economically and are a huge financial undertaking to begin with. As a third concern towards the WTE solution, it has been pointed out that it is simply not a sustainable solution.
Why is the WTE concept not sustainable? If we continue to burn all of our resources then what is left over at the end of the day to manufacture new goods. This will lead to more mining and resource extraction from areas that we shouldn’t be going to in the first place only because we are running out of resources. OK, it won’t happen tomorrow, but lets think 50 years down the road. Where does that leave our kids and grand kids?
Sustainable practices mean actions that can continue indefinitely without depleting or altering those resources (raw materials, air quality, water quality, space, economics, responsible lifestyles, health) that are in some way connected to the proposed solution or practice. WTE, although seems like a good fix, may not be the most sustainable practice out there.
So what do we do then? A good place to start is to look at our unwanted things as not being garbage but a resource. If we can do that then the solution to our ever increasing pile of discards will focus on resource recovery.
In keeping our resources, new products can be generated with less energy expended as compared to mining and processing raw materials. But some items are difficult to recycle because of how they are made. That’s why the big push today is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR is taking the entire responsibility of recycling away from the back end user (us, the consumer) and making manufactures accountable for the products and packaging they produce.
EPR is gaining momentum; look at the recycling of old computers now. More change along this way of thinking is to come and many plans are already being put forth. But for any sustainable practice to be successful, everyone needs to step-up and do their part.
Recycle Microwaves
What to do with that old microwave? For the typical user of microwave ovens, we know that they are handy little devices that some how use radiation to warm our foods. But they can get a little scary when we see sparks, flames and smell something burning other than the hot dog.
Luckily, microwave ovens are primarily metal. The NRE will take this tired item and place the glass plate either in the reuse market or into the glass recycling container. The oven is placed into a metal recycling container to later be shredded into metal scrap.
Should you desire to simply replace your working microwave oven because it may be too big or too small or it lacks the “automatic popcorn” feature, then we can give someone else the opportunity to reuse it. The Community Market is available to a wide variety of household items for reuse.
Here at the Nanaimo Recycling Exchange, we promote the hierarchy of the 3R’s. First we reduce, then we try to reuse, as much as possible, then as a last resort we will recycle the item.
For microwaves and other metal appliances (75% metal content or greater) of any size, the NRE can help discard it in a safe and responsible manner.
Recycle Phonebooks
It’s phonebook season again. The shinny new directories are being delivered and we can finally toss that doodle filled, ripped-up phone book that has seen better days. But where does it go?
Phonebooks are recyclable. Not as easy as regular newspaper but they are recyclable. Directories are not considered valuable to the recycler due to the fact that the fibres are so short. The short fibres make reuse difficult for the manufacture of new paper products. But when adding the right mixture of wood fibres and glue, new paper products are possible.
But with all that, recycling does prevail as the responsible means of disposal. Old phone books can be placed in the curbside yellow bag. They can also be dropped off at any recycling bin that is labelled Mixed Paper.
Keep your eyes and ears open for a special fundraising phonebook collection drive by a school or sports team. This fundraiser used to be a good way of helping the community and the environment as monies were given to the collection group from the Directory Companies. Times have changed and over the last few years money incentives to recycle that phone book have been harder to find.
Nonetheless, you can still recycle that book.
By recycling a phonebook, the fibres go towards the manufacture of new phone books. I came across some interesting stats that may just entice you to recycle that old directory. For every 500 books recycled, we save:
7,000 gallons of water
3.3 cubic yards of landfill space
17 to 31 trees
4,100 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power an average home for six months
Recycle Drywall
Drywall, wallboard or gypsum are just a few of the many names this common building material is referred to. The big question surrounding this material is the reason why there is a need for it to be diverted from the landfill.
First, to understand why drywall is banned from the landfill, a look into what drywall is composed of is required. Gypsum is a naturally occurring mineral; it is composed of calcium sulphate (CaSO4) and water (H2O). Gypsum is mined from deposits formed by ancient seabeds.
If gypsum is a naturally occurring mineral then why can it not be sent to the landfill? The problem lies not with the calcium or hydrogen elements but primarily with the sulphur component.
Within a landfill or other construction and demolition dumping sites with drywall, rainwater will begin to dissolve the gypsum and concentrated areas of sulphate will occur that may contaminate groundwater. High concentrations of sulphate in ground water pose a significant risk to the environment.
Another serious problem that may occur is the result from the biological conversion of dissolved sulphate to hydrogen sulphide (H2S). H2S is a foul-smelling gas (rotten eggs). It is produced under wet, anaerobic conditions, such as those that often occur in landfills. The presence of high concentration pockets of hydrogen sulphide gas may be released by landfill workers and can be lethal if inhaled.
A remarkable characteristic of gypsum is its ability to be recycled again and again into usable products. Some examples include the production of new drywall, an ingredient for Portland cement, and as an additive for agricultural and composting operations. The Drywall collected within the RDN is transported to New Westminster and recycled back into usable wallboard products. Even the paper is re-used in the process and converted to the brown backing on new gypsum products.
Recycle Appliances, Electronics and Gadgets
Appliances, electronics, gadgets and all those other miscellaneous gizmos we have in our homes will all eventually become obsolete, broken or simply unwanted. When that day comes, there is a way to recycle them.
10 months ago, a province wide computer and TV recycling program was launched. Since then, the city of Nanaimo has been diverting over 12 metric tonnes per week of waste TV’s and old computer systems. The program has been very successful and lots of people, businesses and organizations have been taking full advantage of the Electronics Recycling Program.
However, often there is a dead microwave, VCR, toaster, stereo, or even a washer and dryer that continues to sit somewhere in our homes, coffee room or storage area. What can be done with this material? Lots.
This category of waste materials all has a common element of construction, metal.Granted, they may not be 100% metal like the tin can or pie plate. But there is a high enough metal content within them that makes it a valuable recyclable item.
The Landfill and the NRE will accept these items for metal recycling. The electronics are shredded in a large hammer mill and then shipped for smelting. In a controlled environment, these items are heated and the metals are extracted for reuse. The bits of plastic and other non-metal contaminants are incinerated and act as an additional fuel source for the overall smelting process.
My personal take on incineration is that I would rather recycle a given item rather than burn it up and loose it forever. The extraction of new or virgin raw materials from the ground places a greater strain on the environment than processing already available materials, like plastics.
So, when people can take the time to remove plastic from such electronic gadgets, the plastic can then be saved for reuse in a plastics recycling stream. The important thing to remember is that for plastic recycling to work, all metal screws and other non-plastic materials must be removed as these contaminants can really disrupt the plastic shredding process.
Recycle Polycarbonate Plastic
The recent move by the Canadian Government to ban Polycarbonate plastic baby bottles has stirred up a lot of concern over plastic use for food and drink. The attention also prompted some issues over plastic recycling.
There are seven categories of plastics, which are denoted by a number encased within a recycling symbol. The numbers range from #1 through to #7. All have different chemical composition that ultimately determines their use.
The spotlight is on plastic #7 with a PC (polycarbonate) designation beside it. In some cases, all that you will see is “PC”. #7 plastic represents the co-mingle of all the other types of plastics. The addition of PC makes for a lightweight, high-performance plastic that possesses a unique balance of toughness, dimensional stability, optical clarity, and high heat resistance. This is why we see it in so many applications including food containers and utensils.
The scary thing in a PC container is the addition of Bisphenol A (BPA), which is a key building block of polycarbonate plastic. In a food or drink application container, studies have shown the migration of BPA into the food from the container. The big controversy is of course, how much of the BPA is getting into the food and how much do we have to consume before our hormones get all disrupted?
We are not going to answer that here. But lets see how this will effect plastic recycling.
Essentially, there is no change to current plastic container recycling practices. Curbside collection and any depot will still collect #7PC plastics with no questions. The mixed plastics will be shredded up and made into new #7 plastics, some of which may have a PC designation if the manufacture adds a lot of polycarbonate to the #7 mix.
Just for information purposes, the plastics to avoid for food and drink type activities include #3, #6 and #7. The safer plastics to use are #1, #2, #4, and #5. However, there are concerns over reuse of plastic containers and the heating of plastics containing food.