the ReNews Edition Winter 2010
Some interesting stories about Urban Impact's growth and our commitment to the environment.
- NO MORE TIME TO WASTE by Nicole Stefenelli and published in Business In Vancouver
- URBAN RECYCLING
- Urban Recycling Reports Dramatic Reductions, Thanks To Our Hybrid TRUCK
- URBAN SHREDDING
- Watch Out for Workplace Fraud!
- URBAN SOLUTIONS
- Community Impact
- Certificates of Diversion
- New Urban Impact Uniforms
- BLOG POLL
ARTICLE
No More Time To Waste
By Nicole Stefenelli
As published in Business In Vancouver, January 19th-25th, 2010 EditionBurn it? or Truck it and Dump it? After BC Minister of Environment Barry Penner recently announced the $100-million 42-hectare expansion of the Cache Creek landfill, Metro Vancouver will now have the option to continue trucking our garbage to Cache Creek for another 20 years or so.
Landfill advocates and some elected officials believe Metro Vancouver should choose the Truck it and Dump it option–and offset impacts with more investments in waste reduction and recycling programs–over the Burn it option, via Waste-to-Energy facilities, which many Fraser Valley residents oppose due to pollution concerns.
Sadly, provincial waste reduction and recycling solutions for Metro region do not appear to factor into Penner’s landfill expansion plan.
Clearly, whether we Burn it or Truck it and Dump it... the core issue is that we have too much garbage, and we continue to generate more every day.
The region’s waste–aka ‘garbage’– is managed through Metro Vancouver’ Waste Management Plan, which is approved by the BC Ministry of Environment. Over the last decade, numerous options–including exporting our garbage to Washington State, trucking to additional landfills in the interior (Ashcroft Ranch), Waste-to-Energy–have been explored. 2010 is decision time.
The Solid Waste Management Committee has set an ambitious target of diverting 70% of potential waste into recyclable materials before 2015. If achieved, we still have to dispose of an estimated 900,000 Mt’s of garbage. Marvin Hunt, Chair of the Metro Vancouver’s Waste Management Board concedes “to get to 70% diversion is going to be tough, because we as consumers need to change.”
According to Recycling Council of British Columbia (RCBC), the lower mainland currently diverts approx 55% of our total waste to recycling. But even with these recycling efforts, we still create enough garbage in the lower mainland to fill BC Place each year. And there are currently not enough disposal options. The Vancouver Landfill already takes 750,000 Mt’s of our garbage and cannot take more; the Burnaby Incinerator is at capacity at approximately 300,00 Mt’s of garbage per year; and Cache Creek–which takes approx 500,000 Mt’s of waste per year and was set to close down–is now about to ‘supersize’.
Metro Vancouver appears to still prefer the idea of Waste to Energy facilities over land filling; the Waste Management board plans will consult the Fraser Valley regional district board later this month on its waste-to-energy strategy, and then proceed with public input.
A waste management solution is imminent, but the crux of the issue is our consumption, and a dramatic need for waste reduction. The services we consume, the goods we purchase and the resources we waste are out of control. As a region and as global citizens, we have to take our spending and consumption on a serious diet.
Len Laycock, President of Upholstery Arts, Chair of Board of Change, and panelist at the recent Regional Forums on Waste, feels that the adjectives we use to describe garbage have become sanitized, making garbage seem more pleasant. “Why do we use words like landfill when what we are talking about is a garbage dump?” Len believes we need to use appropriate language that better defines the acute issues we are facing.
As part of the equation, product manufacturers also need to be held accountable. Len is an advocate of "Product Stewardship"–also known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)–which uses political means to hold producers, rather than consumers, liable for the costs of managing their products at end of life. Bottom line: the producer should be responsible for the costs of product’s waste reduction, rather than the consumer.
Since I began in the garbage and recycling industry in 1990, society as a whole has dramatically increased its ‘green efforts’, our consumption habits have not decreased; we actually create more garbage per person than we did 20 years ago. Even with initiatives such as Metro Vancouver’s Zero Waste Challenge, a large percentage of the remaining garbage going to landfill are compostables (organic matter), wood waste, plastics and still some paper products.
To truly manage our garbage issues, we need to resolve the disparity between our lofty Zero Waste goals–which always seem to be someone else’s responsibility–with our actual wasteful practices.
Marvin Hunt says “each consumer can make a difference; by specific and thoughtful behavior and choices, each of us can make a significant impact.” But what of business and industry’s responsibilities?
I like what RCBC has to say about Zero Waste: that it inherently links industry and business and community as a closed loop, where one group’s waste is another’s feedstock–preventing pollution before it happens. I believe this is where our thinking and action needs to go.
Read more on this topic in BC Business magazine [logo/link to http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/top-stories/2010/01/06/garbage-burn
Read more Urban Impact in the news http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Catalyst+Paper+indefinitely+closes+recycled+newsprint+plants/2468676/story.html
URBAN RECYCLING
2010 Green Tips Are All-A-Twitter. Don’t Lose Face: Book Now!
We have launched our 2010 Green Tips on Twitter and Facebook. Each week, we post a Green Tip for your business to adopt and do your best to maintain for the rest of the year. Go to twitter.com/UIRecycling and join our Urban Impact Recycling page on Facebook to learn more. We look forward to your comments!
Urban Recycling Reports Dramatic Reductions, Thanks To Our Hybrid TRUCK
Initial reports are in, we are pleased to announce that driving identical routes over a two-month span, we saw a 45% reduction in average daily engine hours and a 33% reduction in fuel consumed. These results are preliminary and we’ll continue to collect data over and report back our results over the months to come.
In addition to engine and fuel reductions, our Hybrid Diesel Electric Collection truck–the first recycling collection and compaction truck in Canada to have an electrically operated Hydraulic pump–makes no noise while it dumps and compacts the paper outside your businesses!
URBAN SHREDDING
Need to De-Clutter Your Business?
The new year is a great time for an office cleanup. Many of our clients call us for an ‘office cleanout’ in which we’ll shred and recycle out all those boxes of 2009 materials that are cluttering up your office space. As always, we encourage you to be as careful as possible when sorting and storing private, confidential, business documentation. Make sure you do not throw away or recycle this kind of information before it is shredded!
Upcoming Shred Days at Urban Shredding Headquarters
Do you have personal confidential files, boxes of paperwork, old statements and private documents in your home or in storage that you would like shredded? Urban Shredding hosts Shred Day events each month for individuals and families who have personal shredding needs. You can watch your files get shredded right before your eyes!
Shred Days
Wednesday February 3rd, 2pm-4pm All proceeds from this event will go to Red Cross / Haiti relief.
Wednesday March 3rd, 2pm-4pm
Wednesday April 7th, 2pm-4pm
Location
15360 Knox Way, Richmond, BC
604.273.0089
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=15360+Knox+Way%2C+Richmond%2C+BC
Shred Days
$25.00 for the first 100 lbs, $.025 per lb thereafter.
Watch Out for Workplace Fraud!
Due to the economic downturn, fraud and identity theft in the workplace is on a dramatic rise. Here are some tips on how keep your business safe:
- Never extend credit to an individual or a company about whom/which you know nothing. Make enquiries, ask for references, and determine credit worthiness by obtaining a credit report on the Individual or the company. A credit check identifies with whom you are dealing and determines the credit worthiness of the applicant.
- Beware of phony invoices. Fraudulent companies send out solicitations for advertising and/or products in the form of invoices to trick businesses into paying without realizing that it is NOT an actual invoice and that they owe the sender nothing.
- Make sure your staff members do not provide information about office equipment over the telephone so that your business doesn't fall victim to the “Toner Phoner” scam in which fraudulent companies misrepresent themselves as your regular supplier to sell you over-priced office supplies.
- Ensure that you have a Privacy Policy in place and that the personal information of your customers and employees is secure, which will help prevent identity theft. A shredding program is necessary for businesses so that any personal information or corporate documentation is not thrown in the garbage where thieves can retrieve it and use it to your or your client's detriment.
- Do not deposit mail in a remote postal drop, especially cheques which have been written to pay an invoice. Cheques from these postal drops are being stolen with great regularity; they are altered to change the payee's name and the amounts are usually increased. Although you will be reimbursed by the bank if you discover the theft within a reasonable time frame, this can be a major inconvenience that you do not need. So always drop your mail at an inside postal drop.
- Always do a bank statement reconciliation at least once a month and preferably more often. If a cheque is stolen, lost or altered, you will be able to rectify the situation before it causes problems for the company. You will also know if cheques have been written on the business account that shouldn't have been and/or if the bank has made a mistake.
- Know your employees. Employee theft is a huge factor in the profitability of many companies. Employee background checks are recommended for Individuals that you are going to trust with company assets.
For the latest tips on how to proactively guard against Identity Theft in the workplace, visit Personal Information Protection Act [PIPA] resources, provided by BC’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.
URBAN SOLUTIONS
Community Impact
Each year, Urban Impact commits 1% of annual pre-tax profit to assist Lower Mainland charities by providing free recycling services as an in-kind contribution. This helps charities reduce waste disposal and lower their operating expenses, allowing them to reduce administration costs and allocate more funds directly towards charitable efforts–directly contributing to the Lower Mainland’s 55% rate of diversion from landfills.In 2009, Urban Impact donated an in-kind value of $46,000 to Lower Mainland charities. And in addition, we also helped raise more than $6,000 for local charities through our Shredathons with VanCity.
Certificates of Diversion
You should have just received your business' 2009 Certificate of Diversion in the mail with diversion statistics and estimated carbon sequestration included. Two good reasons to recycle!
New Urban Impact Uniforms
Watch for Urban Impact's new Urban Recycling and Urban Shredding uniforms when we drop by your office on our next scheduled pick up day! Let us know what you think on Twitter.
BLOG POLL
2010 is time to ‘Travel Mug’ your Double Doubles and Grande Caps!
Will you commit to using a travel mug rather instead of ordering your favourite drinks from disposal cups for the rest of 2010? Please reply to our Blog Poll at Urbanimpact.com/blog
Read more about the impacts of our disposable coffee cup habits, in this recent Vancouver Sun article http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Disposable+cups+have+recyclers/2435310/story.html
Urban Impact is on Twitter!
Follow Nicole at www.twitter.com/nstefenelli for updates on local waste management, recycling, and sustainable comments and issues.
Are you on Facebook?
Stay up to date with Urban Impact on our Facebook fan page. We’ll be posting videos, photos and the latest UI news on the page. And we want to hear from you! We are having great discussion on Facebook on the hottest waste management and environmental issues. Come join the conversation! Please encourage all your Facebook friends to be our fans.
And don’t forget our Blog
Keep up with the latest on Urban Impact thoughts, news and events, and make your comments on our blog!
