Are there not certain European countries that do a very good at recycling everything? Why can't we follow their model?
What is insane to me is lots of businesses don't even recycle their cardboard. It just goes to the trash because there is little incentive for them to divert it to the recycling center.
If you generate a lot of cardboard waste as a business, it is expensive to get a bin and haul it away. And when you do haul it away you get paid next to nothing for it. If you DO insist on recycling, the best option is almost finding a beat up old enclosed trailer and just tossing it in there and haul it to the recycling center once every few months. That is what we do.
A cardboard baler is $5k to $10k, and even then you simply cannot generate enough revenue to make it worthwhile. Hauling an ENTIRE load of cardboard bales to a depot that accepts them will net you maybe $40.
Funny enough on the metal/steel/aluminum side it is much easier as a business to recycle around these parts as there is a local plant that smelts everything down and diverts the different materials where they need to go. We keep a bin for those kinds of materials and haul it in there every few months.
On the electronics side it is a mess as well. You have to PAY to take stuff to an electronics depot so guess what most people do? They haul it to the dump.
Glass products are the same way. Most people just haul it to the dump because there is no easy way to clean it up.
We TRY to recycle best we can, and it is hard. Granted this is Manitoba, so I'm not really sure what Alberta is like anymore. I know you did get a lot more for recycled cans, whereas here in Manitoba it is a lot more strict so guess what people do? They haul it to the dump.
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