SASKATOON — Starting this month, residents can now turn over new items to SARCAN for recycling, which would further lessen the strain on the city’s landfills. SARCAN’s depots in the province are now accepting flexible plastics, foam packaging, glass bottles, and glass jars. The new materials are turned over to several of SARCAN’s partners.
Flexible plastics include plastic bags, stand-up and zipper lock pouches, crinkly wrappers and bags, plastic net bags and plastic protective packaging; foam take-out containers and trays for meat, seafood or vegetables; and foam protective packaging for electronics and appliances. Glass bottles and jars are anything from olive oil, pickles, jams, etc.
Unlike wine bottles, milk jugs and cartons, residents will not get paid when they turn over the new materials accepted by SARCAN. Being able to accept new materials that can be recycled and turned into different products, the program is not for monetary value but more for the value of helping the environment and doing the right thing.
“No deposit has been charged for these items, but the consumer paid it upon purchase. So, there is no deposit refund at the till when you bring them back. When you're bringing them back, you're doing it to express your responsibility to our planet, the environment, and the beauty of our province,” said SARC and SARCAN Recycling Executive Director Amy McNeil.
She added residents should have separate bins for each material, especially bottles and jars that could break, to avoid injury in their house and when they deliver it to one of their 73 depots. They would still accept the bottles and jars even if they are broken.
“The best thing I can do, [like in my] household, and I have children at home, is to come up with some solution where you segregate at home. Having separate bins makes it easy to clean your pickle jar. [Please] put it in a box containing pickle jars. You can bring it in broken, but that comes with a hazard. So, the better your process is at home, the more effective and safer it will be for everybody, including the customer and our employees,” said McNeil.
“The glass depends on whether it's coloured or clear. The clear glass stays within Saskatchewan. We have a partner right at Potters [Canada] in Moose Jaw, and those glasses get crushed and then turned into [tiny] glass beads. One of the primary things created out of those glass beads is reflected paint [used] for the highways. It's a nice closed-loop process there.”
The coloured glasses go to a company in Airdrie, Alberta, where they are turned into fibreglass insulation for homes and other structures.
SK Recycles Vice President for Operations Sam Baker added the new materials will be accepted at SARCAN’s depots, and their partners will then turn them into different products, like glass bottles that will be crushed, processed, and recycled that would end up in various markets.
“Flexible plastic packaging has been a traditionally very difficult packaging type to manage in the past. We work with an end-market partner who can convert this into plastic pellets, which form the feedstock for creating durable plastic goods,” said Baker.
“Flexible plastic packaging includes things like soft plastic packaging. All plastic-based wrapping paper would be in this material category. Saran wrap is considered flexible plastic packaging and can be brought to any of these 73 SARCAN depots.”
McNeil said Merlin Plastics is one of their downstream markets, which makes benches, lawn furniture and other things that can come from flexible plastic bags accepted at SARCAN depots. “You can bring your flexible plastics, foam packaging, glass bottles and jars.”
She added that they plan to work with other sectors, including the Indigenous communities, to expand their reach further and SARCAN’s recycling program to create solutions and encourage people to be more responsible citizens of the province.
“We'll be working with partners across the province, large and small communities, First Nations, Métis communities and other organizations, including private companies, to design the rest of the program and what that will look like as it rolls out in the next three years,” said McNeil.
“SARCAN wants to continue growing and expanding the materials we collect within our depots. So, we can be a one-stop shop for you to bring your recycling materials. We want to make it easy for individuals to recycle in Saskatchewan.”
