Waste Reduction & Diversion: The Easter Edition

By: Maria Garcia Manzano, AEIC of the Quill

Over the years, chocolate egg packaging has been a hot topic due to the high proportion that cannot be recycled. This is slowly changing, with major retailers promising to reduce their packaging. While this is good news and means that companies are starting to listen, as a 4R Waste Ambassador, I ask everyone to pick their Easter treats with the recycling bin in mind and recycle as much as possible. I urge you to hop to your recycling bin, but as you already know (based on my previous 4R Waste Ambassador articles) - not everything can be thrown in. With Easter right around the corner, your house might soon be full of Easter egg wrappers and boxes and everything in between. But did you know a lot of that waste can go into your curbside recycling bin rather than into your garbage bin? Below I will discuss some tips for Easter waste reduction and diversion.

Easter egg foil:

The best way to recycle Easter egg foil is to scrunch the foil up into a small fist-sized ball before placing it in the recycling bin. This makes sure the tiny bits of foil don't get lost in the recycling process.

If it's got chocolate on it, rinse it off first, and if it's still too dirty, it's better in the waste bin. If you haven't consumed enough chocolate to make a fist-sized ball of foil, you can place the foil pieces into an aluminum drink can in order to contain them before placing them in your recycling bin.

Cardboard boxes:

The cardboard boxes that package the eggs and any other boxes can be placed in your recycle bin for recycling. Collapsing the boxes first helps leave room in your container for more recycling.

Why do I insist on recycling?

When an item goes in the bin and ends up at the Eastview landfill, harmful chemicals and greenhouse gasses are released as it breaks down.

Recycling not only helps in creating less waste but also helps in reducing the emissions caused by waste. But that's not all! Recycled materials can be used to create other products. We then avoid taking raw materials from the earth, such as timber and water, or having to make them from scratch, using more energy and creating further emissions.

So, why can't I just throw it all in the recycling? It gets sorted later, right?

Wrong. When unnecessary waste is put in your recycling bin, we end up with 'contamination' of the waste. This causes problems when recyclables are sorted and can affect the ability of the item to be processed into a new product. In fact, contaminating a few bins could mean risking an entire truckload of recyclables.

If you ever find yourself with the question of what can or can't be recycled, then Recycle Everywhere offers a comprehensive list, or you can look up your item and see if Eastview Landfill is equipped to have that item be dropped off. https://recycleeverywhere.ca

Happy Recycling!