Recycling in Calgary

I can always find objects that need to be "trashed" but my heart always breaks thinking that these items will sit the rest of their days in a landfill. (I'm definitely not a hoarder). I had an old broken humidifier that needed to be out of my home as it was no use to anyone and was merely a tripping hazard. But no one seemed to know of a place where I could recycle such an awkward item. It's not quite an electronic but it definitely has potential to be broken down and recycled. Sadly, it did end up in the trash.

I have recently found a recycling guide that I would like to share with my fellow Calgarians. It has great tips on where to take these kinds of "trashy" objects to be recycled!! This was a very exciting find I might add, and I wish I had received it sooner! It's written up by the great organization Clean Calgary.

Clean Calgary's Reuse and Recycle Guide

I also believe that Sears will recycle old fridges and the such. But you'd have to double check that. I'm not sure if that's only with a purchase of something new.

Reducing the amount of garbage is a constant project for me. I now throw more in the recycling bin then I do in the trash can. With the recycling of most plastics now available in the city has made recycling even more convenient! I no longer have to drive to the next town. Which is remarkable determination, I think, since most people wouldn't even drive to the recycling bins. This also has been eliminated for most Calgarians who have access to recycling pick up now. Alas, the condo's are on their own.

I'm hoping my next task will be learning how to compost. When I can use compost for a garden or find a service which will take compost, I'd like to think my garbage will be reduced by half! I live alone and therefore quite a bit of food ends up going bad.

While some of us struggle with recycling odd objects, it appears that others struggle with the concept of recycling the easy products, like paper. I found a pile of newspaper sitting in the dumpster, 5 feet away from a bin labeled "Recycle Newspaper". Newspaper is so easy to recycle and someone instead of turning left to the recycling bins turned right to the dumpster. This is just a case of extreme laziness that is out there!!!

Please recycle whenever you can!

PS: I fished out the paper I could get to and put it in the recycling pile. Felt a moment of slight heroism for the day ;)

The Smart Hanger

I come across so many small companies that strive to make our planet better. They recycle and reuse materials we already have. It's a shame that they are often overlooked or cannot reach the masses. I have hope that more and more environment friendly companies will become the norm for our society.

This site is the latest find for products that are trying to eliminate our needless waste. The mundane objects in our lives are often wasted or thrown away without us really thinking about it. This company is making recycled paper coat hangers in order to decrease the amount of wire hangers that end up in landfills.

http://www.thesmarthanger.com/

I've seen boxes of coat hangers being purchased in wardrobe/costume departments for film and theatre. It would be worth it for them to contact a person and buy a few boxes. It's a great idea for companies such as hotels or dry cleaners to purchase this item in bulk. This is probably where the majority of waste happens.

However, it would be nice if the site had a "buy a small package" kind of deal for the regular person. Seems like a hassle to contact them just to buy a few hangers. I like the idea a lot, but the accessibility for regular people to go to a store and buy these kind of products is not there. Great for companies who need these kind of hangers. Us consumers will have to wait I guess for this kind of thing to reach our closets.