Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Sources of Waste

Food waste

Several opportunities exist for reducing this material, in the form of mid- to large-scale composting facilities. The Composting Technology Centre at Olds College is a leader in research and education on composting methods for residents, municipalities and industry.

Glass

Most glass recovered in Alberta goes through the beverage container collection system. Most beer bottles are returned to the manufacturer for reuse. Non-refillable beverage containers are recycled for remanufacture. Glas jars are collected through some blue box programs and drop-off recycling facilities. The very low market for waste glass is a major barrier to increased recovery of non-deposit glass containers and flat glass.

Metals

SPrimarily residential and commercially generated items such as steel and aluminum cans, white goods (fridges, stoves), small appliances and other miscellaneous items (metal furnishings, fasteners and fittings). Close to 75 per cent of scrap steel) and 45 per cent of aluminum, brass and copper are recovered for recycling.

Paper

Most office paper is made from chemically pulped paper fibre. In Alberta, this paper represents the largest untapped supply of recoverable paper, with a recovery rate of around 25 per cent of total sold. A challenge for municipalities and paper collectors is drawing a higher percentage of this valuable paper out of the waste stream.

Old Corrugated Containers

The world's leading material used in shipping and merchandising is a very environmentally efficient type of packaging (no new tree fibre needs to be harvested to manufacture corrugated boxes.) Feedstock used is either byproducts of the lumber industry such as wood chips and sawdust, or recyclable cardboard. Highly sought-after, it is typically uncontaminated, generated in large volumes and ieasily recycled into new paper products, primarily new corrugated products and boxboard.

Plastics

By weight, plastics make up nine per cent of the municipal solid waste stream, but as food containers, boxes and other bulky items, they account for as much as 20 per cent, by volume.

Two major plastic resin types: thermoplastic and thermoset. Thermoset resins make up 10 per cent of the plastics in use. Once solidified, they cannot be melted and resolidified. Thermoplastic resins can be repeatedly melted and remoulded, without major changes in quality. Alberta's plastics recycling industry is the recycling of post-industrial plastics, generated by thermoplastic manufacturers.

Post-consumer plastics however are less valuable to recyclers. Collection programs are now economically limited to collecting only two high-value resins.

Wood Wastes

Largest part of the industry's waste (damaged concrete forms, pallets, packing crates, site excavation of trees and brush etc.) Significant volumes of reusable wood can be salvaged, remilled into smaller wood products; processed into chips for landscape mulch, fuel, compost amendment, livestock bedding and road stabilization as well as erosion control on construction sites and as fibre for roofing materials. Several waste wood re-sellers and processors operate in Alberta.

Cardboard

If uncontaminated, can be recycled into new paper products. Most Alberta communities have well-developed recycling systems.

Concrete

Drywall

Can be processed through a grinder/hammer mill that chips or pulverizes the gypsum and shreds the paper backing, screened and reprocessed into new drywall; used as a soil amendment , a buffer in acidic soils, and incorporated into landscaping mulch, or used as animal bedding. Alberta drywall recycling opportunities are evolving.

Asphalt shingles

Can be ground and added to hot or cold asphalt mixes for road, parking lot and pathway paving, and sub-base applications. Alberta asphalt shingle recycling opportunities are also evolving.

Other

Glass, metal, insulation, carpet /underlay, floor/ceiling tiles, and electrical/plumbing fixtures can be salvaged and resold. Used building material re-sellers can be found in most Alberta communities.

Other Mixed

Other materials in the IC&I waste composition include other organics, hazardous materials and a small amount of yard wastes.