The Abbotsford Mission Recycling Program tries to ensure that collected recyclables are processed to take the best advantage of their intrinsic value and that destination facilities have high environmental standards.
- Corrugated cardboard is shipped to local mills and made into boxboard.
- Newspaper is taken to a de-inking plant and used to make paper products such as toilet paper and paper towels.
- Mixed paper is shipped to local mills and made into paper products such as egg cartons and berry boxes.
- Plastic #1 (PET, polyethyl tetraethylene) is shipped to a local plastics facility where it is made into flakes and then made into products such as carpets and fleece sweaters.
- Plastic #2 (HDPE, high density polyethylene) is sent to a local plastics facility where it is melted into resin pellets and then made into non-food containers and products, such as plastic lumber.
- Plastic film #4 (LDPE, low density polyethylene) is taken to a local plastics facility where it is made into new plastic bags, containers, and products.
- Plastic #5 (PP, polypropylene) is taken to a local plastics facility where it is melted into resin pellets and made into containers like flower pots and products like shipping pallets.
- Glass is shipped to a glass factory where it is colour separated, broken and then used to make new glass bottles and jars, used as an abrasive in sand-blasting, or used as a gravel substitute in concrete aggregate.
- Tin and steel are sent to scrap metal dealers where they are sorted and sent to manufacturing sites to be re-made into any new metal product from tin cans to bicycles to cars.
- Aluminum is shipped to an aluminum smelter where it is remade into new pop cans and other aluminum products. An aluminum pop can that is placed in a recycling bin, will be remade into a new aluminum pop can in approximately 60 days.
- Batteries are sent to a local facility. Nickel cadmium batteries are shredded. Nickel is blended with other metals and smelted for use by steel producers. Cadmium is converted into pellets and reused in the battery industry.
- Fluorescent light tubes are taken to a local processing facility where they are disassembled using a specially designed machine. Glass is used to make fibreglass, metal end caps are taken to smelters, and mercury is removed and re-used.
- Computers and TVs, and other electronic waste, are taken to electronics recycling plants in Canada or the U.S. where metal, glass, and plastics are recovered and recycled.
- Paints and aerosols are collected and re-used as part of the Paint Exchange Program or recovered for energy. The steel containers are sent for metal recycling.
Summary of Our Waste Diversion Success
In 2007, over 85,000 tonnes of solid waste were received from Abbotsford residents, businesses and industry which is approximately 685 kg per person. This represents a 9% increase from 2004. About 86% of all the garbage received was produced by the multi-family and ICI (industrial, commercial, institutional) sectors.
In 2007, approximately 29% of the waste generated in a typical Abbotsford household needed to be sent to a landfill however 71% of it actually was sent. This is because in 2007, the composition of garbage coming from a typical Abbotsford household was:
- 57% Compostables
- 14% Recyclables
- 29% Garbage
We can significantly reduce the amount of waste being landfilled by more recycling and by more composting.
In 2008, in response to the Metro Vancouver bans on specific materials in garbage at all Metro Vancouver waste disposal facilities, including the Matsqui Transfer Station, the City initiated a yard and garden waste drop-off facility in February 2008 at the Abbotsford Mission Recycling Depot. This has helped increase the single family waste diversion rate to 36.8%.