Recycling

Please put the following items where they belong to recycle those great holiday memories: 

Mixed Paper

• Paper gift tags and cards
• Wrapping paper
• Boxes

Garbage

• Ribbons and bows
• Plastic wrap or padding
• Tape
• Foil wrapping paper
• Styrofoam

During the holiday season, Christmas trees can be dropped off at the following locations:

• Quarry Lake Parking Lot
• Fairholme/17 Street
• Boulder Crescent Recycle Depot
• Benchlands Trail (Bike Skills Parking Lot)

Acceptable Items:

• Office paper
• Printer paper
• Photographs
• Phonebooks
• Gift wrap
• Books
• Any kind of writing paper
• Corrugated boxes (pizza boxes, appliance boxes, and electronic boxes),
• Boxboard (cereal box, shoe box, tissue box and other cardboard packaging).
• Paper Cups
• Tetra Packs 

Non-Acceptable Items:

• Soiled paper or cardboard (food or oil stains)
• Material that has been treated with wax, such as frozen food boxes, or any other laminate. 

Mixed papers consist of a mixture of papers typically found in printing companies, households or small businesses. Paper, cardboard and boxboard is collected, baled and transported to appropriate processing plants. 

Acceptable items:

• Clear and coloured glass including all glass jars
• Drinking glass
• Windowpanes
• Broken beverage bottles

Glass is shipped to a processor via Francis Cooke who turns it into sandblasting material. It is expensive to ship glass so please ensure that you bring all your refundables to the Bottle Depot. 

Please ensure all lids are removed and glass is rinsed and free of labels.

Acceptable items:

• Metal food cans
• Assorted metals such as small metal pieces, coat hangers, pie plates, empty dry paint cans and similar metal products
• Household rigid plastic items such as: Plastic Jars (eg. peanut butter, sour creme, yogurt, margarine), Tupperware items, personal hygiene containers (eg. shampoo, body wash, deodorant tubes), PVC piping, and most standard plastic product material. 

Not Acceptable:

• Metal pieces heavier than 1kg
• plastic film such as grocery bags, plastic food wrap
• Styrofoam such as egg cartons, meat trays, packing peanuts, disposable styrofoam cups and plates.

Please ensure that all containers are properly rinsed.

Acceptable Items:

• Automotive Batteries ONLY

Non-Acceptable Items:

• All other batteries should be sorted in the proper recycling containers.

An automotive battery, also referred to as a lead-acid battery, contains about 21 pounds of lead, 3 pounds of plastic and 1 gallon of sulfuric acid. These items can be toxic if handled improperly.

Batteries collected in Canmore are picked up by Independent Battery. At the battery recycling facility, spent or 'junk' batteries are broken apart and seperated into components to begin the recycling process. Plastic pellets, recycled from old battery cases and covers are used to manufacture new battery cases and covers. Lead ingots recycled from battery grids and lead oxide are used to manufacture new battery grids and components. Sodium sulphate crystals seperated from old battery acid are recycled and sold for use in textile, glass and detergent manufacturing. Battery covers and cases are manufactured for new batteries from recycled plastic. Battery grids are manufactured from recycled lead for use in new batteries. Recovered lead oxide is also used in new battery manufacturing.

Accepted Items:

• Bicycle Tires (including inner tubes)

Non-Acceptable Items:

• All other types of tires.  These should be taken (with rims removed) to the Francis Cooke Regional Landfill.

Bicycle tires are picked up and taken to Eco-Flex in Calgary. The tires go through a shredder machine that reduces the tires to 4" pieces. This product is shipped as is to some customers. Otherwise, the 4" pieces are transported to our crumbing machines where they essentially get ground into a fine rubber powder. This crumbed product is then used to produce a large variety of 100% recycled rubber products that are sold worldwide.

Acceptable Items:

• Office paper
• Printer paper
• Photographs
• Phonebooks
• Gift wrap
• Books
• Any kind of writing paper
• Corrugated boxes (pizza boxes, appliance boxes, and electronic boxes)
• Boxboard (cereal box, shoe box, tissue box and other cardboard packaging).
• Paper Cups
• Tetra Packs

Non-Acceptable Items:

• Soiled paper or cardboard (food or oil stains)
• Material that has been treated with wax, such as frozen food boxes, or any other laminate. 

Mixed papers consist of a mixture of papers typically found in printing companies, households or small businesses. Paper, cardboard and boxboard is collected, baled and transported to appropriate processing plants. 

Acceptable Items:

• Televisions
• Computers, Monitors, Laptops
• Computer Accessories (i.e. printers, scanners, fax machines)
• Stereo Equipment
• VCRs / DVD Players
• Telephones & Fax Equipment
• Cell Phones / Pagers
• Kitchen appliances (Toasters, microwaves, coffee makers etc)
• All chargers, cabels, adapters, powerbars etc.

Non-Acceptable Items:

• Fridges
• Stoves
• Freezers
• Large household items. 

With new technologies, what once was cutting-edge is quickly becoming obsolete. In the past most of these old electronics were discarded into landfills. Unfortunately, many electronics contain hazardous materials, such as lead and mercury, and there are many materials that can be recycled. eWaste is shipped to Calgary where it is processed by GEEP (Global Electric and Electronic Processing).

Acceptable Items:

• Standard light bulbs
• All fluorescent tubes (u-shaped, short, long and compact fluorescent lights also known as CFLs)
• Ballast.

Be very careful not to break or crush fluorescent light bulbs as they contain mercury. The bulbs are shipped to Enviro-Sort in Red Deer for recycling. All glass is recycled into reflective beads for highway line painting or used for road base. Metal is re-melted and reused. The phosphor powder containing mercury and mercury-containing ampoules is sent to a retort facility where the mercury is used for new bulbs and mercury switches.

Acceptable items:

• Clear and coloured glass including all glass jars
• Drinking glass
• Windowpanes
• Broken beverage bottles

Glass is shipped to a processor via Francis Cooke who turns it into sandblasting material. It is expensive to ship glass so please ensure that you bring all your refundables to the Bottle Depot. 

Please ensure all lids are removed and glass is rinsed and free of labels.

Acceptable items:

• Metal food cans
• Assorted metals such as small metal pieces, coat hangers, pie plates, empty dry paint cans and similar metal products.

Not Acceptable:

• Metal pieces heavier than 1kg. These pieces need to be brought to the landfill or saved for the Large Item Pick-Up program.

Please ensure all metal food cans are rinsed and free of paper labels. For safety purposes and to minimize cuts, ensure the lid is inserted into the can and pressed shut or simply leave the lid attached by not fully removing it in the process of opening the can.

The metal is collected, baled, and transferred to the Francis Cook Landfill. Once a large quantity is collected the product is then sent to metal recyclers who crush and melt the metal in high temperatures and reshape it into food cans, fence posts, rebar, automobile parts etc.

Acceptable Items:

• Household rigid plastic items such as: Plastic Jars (eg. peanut butter, sour creme, yogurt, margarine), Tupperware items, personal hygiene containers (eg. shampoo, body wash, deodorant tubes), PVC piping, and most standard plastic product material.

Non-Acceptable Items: 

• Plastic film such as grocery bags, plastic food wrap
• Styrofoam such as egg cartons, meat trays, packing peanuts, disposable styrofoam cups and plates.

Please ensure all plastic containers are rinsed and crushed, as this will reduce space in the collection process. HINT*For really small plastic items, collect them in a larger container with a lid such as a peanut butter container as the smaller items tend to fall through during the baling process.

Here is a list for the different type of plastics and the categories found in the recycling symbol:

• PET = Polyethylene (i.e. Soft drink containers and peanut butter jars)
• HDPE = High Density Polyethylene (i.e. shampoo bottles)
• PVC = Polyvinyl Chloride (i.e. Water bottles)
• LDPE = Low Density Polyethylene (i.e. Cookie spacer)
• PP = Polypropylene (i.e. Yogurt tubs)
• PS = Polystyrene (i.e. Styrofoam™ cup and egg cartons) *not accepted*
• Other = Mixture of more than one of the above plastics (i.e. Ketchup bottles)

Plastics are baled, shipped out, melted down and made into plastic products.

Acceptable Items:
Household and electronic equipment batteries. (AA, AAA and so on, laptop, cellphone, powertool batteries etc.)

Please do not place automotive batteries in these containers. All of the rechargable batteries and cell phones are recycled and used to create other types of materials, including new batteries, stainless steel products and more.

Acceptable Items:

• Used Motor oil
• Transmission oil
• Antifreeze (glycol)
• Used oil filters
• Empty oil and antifreeze containers.

Non-Acceptable Items:

• Contaminated motor oil, cooking oil (vegetable or animal fat).
  
  

Studies verify that just 1 litre of used oil can contaminate 1 million litres of water (Read more at www.usedoilrecycling.com).

Recycled oil can be refined and restored to be re-sold as motor oil; it is also used extensively in the production of asphalt. Oil filters are shredded, heated to a molten state and then re-used and made into rebar, nails and wire. Used plastic oil containers are chipped, washed, heated and made into new containers, railway ties, plastic flowerpots, plastic pipe and fence posts.

The leaf and grass bin accepts small garden waste (no soil or invasive weeds) from April to November. All collected material is transferred to the Francis Cooke Regional Class III Landfill to be composted.

The scrub and brush bin accepts green wood, bushes and stumps from April to November. All collected material is transferred to the Francis Cooke Class III Landfill to be chipped and used as mulch.