Edmonton Sustainability in Review: February Edition
Welcome to the February edition of Edmonton Sustainability in Review!
While everyone seemed to have hibernated during this month’s cold snap, that didn’t stop sustainable initiatives in our City from forging onwards.
Keeping clothes out of the landfill one pound at a time
Every year, North Americans send over 10 million tonnes of clothing into landfills, 95% of which could be recycled or reused. In an effort to reduce these numbers, Sarah Janzen started Blenderz Garment Recyclers (Blenderz)
Each week, Sarah picks up 2400 pounds of unsold clothing from local charity shops or thrift stores. Once these enormous amounts of clothes are picked up, they make their way to the Blenderz warehouse where they are sorted into two piles, items that are in good condition and items that have seen a lot of love and are no longer useable. The items that are in good condition are put into various curated delivery boxes or sold by the pound. The curated delivery boxes go by size and sex, weigh 20 pounds each, and are only $20, with the exception of their vintage delivery box which is $45. Anything that’s not usable or wearable, they recycle through their various classes and crafting kits; These crafting kits and classes are really where the magic happens, as most people would throw away these unusable items!
You can keep up to date with Blenderz and learn more about the great work they do by following them on social media, visiting their website, or even heading over to their warehouse to check out their clothing by the pound sales (which I highly recommend!)
Increasing the efficiency of recycling in Edmonton
Edmonton’s 22-year-old recycling facility is getting a much-needed facelift this year at the cost of $15.7 million which will be used to increase its capacity and efficiency of processing cardboard, paper, plastics, glass, and metal.
Right now, Edmonton’s recycling facility relies heavily on hand-sorting materials into separate streams, which only allows up to 36% of residential waste to be diverted from landfills. However, with this facelift, the facility will be receiving optical sorters that scan and mechanically sort different types of materials, which will help the City in achieving its goal of diverting 90% of residential waste from landfills! When all is said and done, the upgraded system should be able to process 86,000 tonnes of recyclables per year, which is an increase from the facility's current capacity of 50,000 tonnes.
Those are our sustainability stories for this month, keep an eye out for the next edition of Edmonton Sustainability in Review at the end of March!