Ctrl-Z

James D. Downham, President & CEO, PAC, Packaging Consortium

November 11th, 2015

Since 2010, PAC has taken a path of social responsibility. Focus on:

Packaging – PAC NEXT – a world without packaging waste.
Food Waste – 33% of all food is wasted.
Canadian Water Summit – water waste.

About PAC

Common theme is packaging.
Organization educates on all subjects related to packaging, including factory tours and classroom education.
PAC works with major retailers, who are members of the organization.
Members include companies at all points of the value chain, like Kraft, Coca Cola and packaging companies.
Now waste management companies and governments are also members of PAC.
According to Jim Downham, the way to solve a problem is with collaboration and discussion.
PAC NEXT, formed in 2010, resulted in having to learn a whole new industry.

Comments on Ctrl-Z’s Smart Sort Trash Bin:

James Downham recently saw a bin at Sherway Garden with descriptions which were very helpful.
He introduced to the team the idea of “Circular Economy” - an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them while in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.
He referred to Ellen MacArthur, a pioneer in circular economy movement who is a retired British sailor. She learned to go a long way and understood the need to be self-reliant.
We are a consumption society (i.e. we throw stuff away).
Nature’s Path is in the business of getting a bowl of cereal in front of you.
We generate so much waste.
But anything made can be brought back and made into something else.
To achieve a world without packaging waste is a huge task.

Food service waste:

CBC’s Marketplace – used GPS trackers on Tim Hortons Inc. waste.
Complex issues.
Quick service restaurants are small and there is not much space to store waste and recycling.
The problem is that waste is combined.
Problem is that packaging is being contaminated with food – a huge problem because such packaging cannot be recycled.
In order to be sustainable, profit must be generated.

Reasons for not recycling:

Consumers litter.
Many people do not care about recycling.
With condominium apartments it is difficult to sort various types of rubbish.
Food contamination of packaging materials.
Newspaper and old corrugated cardboard (“OCC”) is the most commonly recycled material with 60%-80% recovery rates.
Only a small % of aluminum cans are recycled.
Clear glass is good for recycling but colored glass is bad.
Plastic bottles recycle well.

The packaging material which is growing the most is flexible packaging (e.g. potato chip bags, meat and cheese packaging).

This is difficult to sort at the MRF.
They consist of laminated materials and structures.
Nylon laminated with polypropylene cannot be separated.

Jim Downham introduced the concept of “Extended Producer Responsibility." A strategy designed to promote the integration of environmental costs associated with goods throughout their life cycles into the market price of the products.

You pay for the recovery of your product (e.g. Snapple)

What gets in the way of increased recovery?:

Laws (provincial)
Method of recovery (municipal)
Consumer (put it in, or not)

Jim Downham discussed Stewardship Ontario, a not-for-profit organization funded and governed by the industries that are the brand owners, first importers or franchisors of the products and packaging materials managed under its recycling programs. It operates the Blue Box – the curbside recycling program for printed paper and packaging, and Orange Drop – the recycling and safe disposal program for hazardous or special waste.

The cost of Stewardship Ontario compliance for product manufacturers is approximately 2% to 3% of cost of sales.
The weight of the package is an issue for recycling. The solution is lightweight flexible packaging.
Need to look at the start to the finish to see what has the smallest environmental impact.
Bioplastics are evolving very rapidly.
Jim Downham referred to team to Ecologic Brands which forms bottles out of paper. Easy to decouple paper from the plastic.
Jim Downham referred the team to Recyclebank which rewards people for taking everyday green actions with discounts and deals from local and national businesses.
He referred the team to TerraCycle, a company that makes consumer products from waste, formed by Tom Szaky.
An interesting idea at Wal-Mart is a drop off depot at the corner of the parking lot which gives people credits which can be used inside the store.
Beer bottles get recycled 13 times before disposed of.
GreenMantra is a technology company that has developed a proprietary catalytic process to economically produce commercial quality waxes and fuels. It uses polymers to make wax which is used in roofing shingles.
He encouraged us to examine the K-cups Lifecycle Assessment – for single serve coffee pods. Maybe make a pod out of bioplastic.

Anne Sneyd, Director of Brokerage and Supply Chain, Darlene Hartung and Lauren Camara, Corporate Communications & Marketing, Canada Fibers Limited

December 2, 2015

About Canada Fibres

Canada Fibers (“CF”) was founded in 1990.
Started as a recycler of newspapers, exclusively.
CF removed the dye from paper and created blank news sheet (i.e. newsprint converting).
It was awarded a contract with the City of Toronto to process curbside-collected paper. The contract covers the entire city of Toronto.
Today, it handles all plastics, metals, papers cardboard, mixed glass and wood.
CF also handles collected materials from the Region of Peel, the City of Hamilton and the City of Sudbury.
The Company handles 60% of the blue box recycling in the Province of Ontario.
For the Industrial Commercial & Institutional (IC&I) sector, CF has private contracts with companies like Waste Management and Progressive Waste.
CF operates a single stream recycling facility, which is better for the customer/consumer.
Today, CF has a 95% - 98% recovery rate.
According to CF, 1 ton of recycling creates 7 jobs in the the community.
Since Jul 2015, CF has operated a subsidiary, Urban Waste Recycling – operates front load trucks.
Basic operation:
- Tip floor – material are dumped here by trucks.
- Front end loader dumps materials into a hopper.
- Main inline belt transports unsorted recycled materials, and includes some residue.
- Next, there is a manual pre-sort where staff pull out materials that are not recoverable.
- Optical sorter are used to classify the recyclable materials. It uses light and air jet streams to sort the materials. Optical sorter can distinguish between the 7 types of plastic.

Information About The Recycling of Specific Items

Heinz bottles are difficult to process.

There is an inner layer of non-PET and an outer layer of PET.
Two different grades of plastic grades within the bottle.

Potato chip bags are difficult to process.

Inner layer of aluminum.
The outer layer is plastic.

Tim Horton cups, K-cups and chip bags are called "in between products" and end up in landfill.
Food on plastic materials is generally not as issue due to the use of a "hot wash".

Canada Fiber's Comments Concerning Ctrl-Z's Innovative Solution

For CF, less contamination and education are key.
The Smart Sort Trash Bin could be used to accommodate liquids, which is a problem when PET bottles are not sufficiently emptied of liquids.
Smart Sort Trash Bin is customizable based on the environment in which it is situated. For example, could have compartments for each of fluorescent, incandescent and mercury lightbulbs.

Ravinder Diwan, Technical Analyst, Peel Integrated Waste Management Facility

Alan Blake, Executive Director, PAC NEXT and Rachel Morier, Program Manager, PAC NEXT

December 2, 2015

7795 Torbram Road, Toronto,ON

Process 130,000 tonnes of recyclable materials per annum.
Tim Hortons cups are problematic for recycling because of the plastic and the dye embedded in the cup material. As such, these need to be treated as garbage and sent to the landfill.
The Peel Integrated Waste Management Fecility works with partners in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon.
When recyucling, contamination is the issue. Typical problems: pop bottles containing liquid, food–contaminated recycled materials in the blue bin. Garbage mixed with recycling materials can damage the machinery in the MRF.
Community events are charged extra fees if recycling is "contaminated". For example, events like RibFest can be penalized on a per container basis if their recycling is contaminated.
In schools, the rate of contamination is 22% today
In the pre-sort room, the staff look for large contaminants.
Shredded paper is not recyclable in Peel.
Recommends Peel’s website: http://www.wheredoesitgo.ca