Some of the unwanted items found at the MRF and in the landfill at the Waste and Recycling Centre (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Proper disposal of utmost importance at Lethbridge’s Waste and Recycling Centre

Jan 17, 2020 | 12:57 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Safe to say it’s important to double check what you’re tossing into your blue cart.

Steve Rozee, manager of Lethbridge’s Waste and Recycling Centre, says they see examples of improper disposal on a regular basis.

Some items found at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) that shouldn’t be tossed into residential blue carts include knives, food waste and even bowling balls among others.

Rozee said that improper disposal can cause damage to equipment, and items like knives and bowling balls can also put MRF employees’ safety at risk.

More non-recyclable items, including a bowling ball (Lethbridge News Now)

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“Certain items will actually jam in the equipment and break it, cause us to lose up-time or even break a piece of equipment and cause us to have to spend money and time repairing the equipment,” Rozee said, adding improper disposal can also downgrade recyclables at the facility.

“It can mix in, and we’ve had examples such as used motor oil ending up in recycling and ruining, in that instance, a tonne and a half – literally a tonne and a half of our recyclable paper had to go to the landfill because it was coated with oil and could not be recycled anymore.”

HANDS-ON WORK

Another message Rozee wants to pass along to residents is that there are about 20 people directly working in the Materials Recovery Facility, and that it’s not just a building filled with machines.

“About 14 of those staff are always actually handling recycling, that’s their job – to use their hands…typically they’re picking out things that shouldn’t be there, so they’re looking for things that could damage the equipment or hurt their colleagues, or degrade the recycling.”

Employees at work at the MRF (Lethbridge News Now)

He added they receive about 30 tonnes of recycling per day, so it’s expected that every day they will find a number of items at both the MRF that shouldn’t be there.

He believes there’s still an element of “wish-cycling”, where someone might toss an improper item in their blue cart with the thought that crews at the MRF will just properly sort it for them.

“We just don’t have the time to do that for you. If you put glass in the blue cart, not only does it pose a risk to the people and the quality of our materials, it’ll end up as a residual from the MRF because we’re just not set up for that,” he said.

Rozee said recently at the MRF, an employee was sent to the emergency room after being cut by a piece of broken glass, found in a black garbage bag that the employee was removing from the mixed plastics section of the recycling depot.

“[The employee had] puncture-resistant gloves to protect [their] hands, but in that instance those gloves weren’t enough,” he said.

Rozee added that when it comes to items like food waste, a good rule of thumb is to think that anything you would consider “gross yourself” shouldn’t be tossed into the recycling bin.

Food items found by staff (Lethbridge News Now)

“Some of the things we’ve seen is rotting food, so people treating it [the blue cart] as an extra garbage cart clearly in that instance, I think. [We’ve seen] pet waste, so whether that’s kitty litter and what’s in the kitty litter or bags of dog feces and believe it or not, even diapers and bed sheets,” he said.

“[It’s] really hard on the staff when they have to experience these things in their day and it’s unfortunately common that they do…we’d ask people to really think about the person downstream who will inevitably handle what goes in your blue cart, and make sure you’re putting [in] things that are safe and considerate for them.”

Items like food and pet waste are considered black cart material.

LANDFILL

Rozee says this isn’t just an issue at the MRF, but something they see in the landfill at the Waste and Recycling Centre as well.

“The waste is handled differently at the landfill using more heavy equipment, so the staff are further away, so they’re exposed to different risks there,” he said.

“[The] biggest things that concern us are people putting in things that could explode, [like] compressed gas cylinders, so propane tanks, helium tanks for kid’s party balloons, fire extinguishers – these are all items that are cannisters under pressure.”

He explained that if items such as those are hit in the wrong spot by equipment or take a bad bump, they can shoot up in the air or explode, adding an increased risk to both customers and workers on-site.

“In the last two weeks, we’ve identified three, very small contained fires that we were able to put out with our professional staff down at the landfill site that we’re cause by, we believe in all cases, rechargeable batteries, but [they were] battery fires,” he said.

“Certain chemistries of batteries, lithium ion in particular – so rechargeable batteries from power tools, phones and PCs, those types of batteries in particular – sometimes if damaged or if they make contact with other metals create a fire.”

He added that a few years ago at the landfill, someone drove over a canister of acetylene that had been thrown in the waste pile and it shot up in the air and landed on the hood of a vehicle, denting it.

He said the Waste and Recycling Centre has a public drop-off, which includes a household hazardous waste area and staff there accept items like propane tanks, free of charge.

Those items cannot go in residential black or blue carts.

Many resources are available to residents to see what they can and cannot recycle. A couple can be seen through the City of Lethbridge website and the Waste Wizard tool.