GIRO NEWS-keep it in play!
By Steve Polzin
GIRO coordinator
Monday, February 8 2010
No, this is not a sports report, but another report about how GIRO deals with your “stuff”. To recycle a material is to keep it in play and in many cases, part of the process involves shredding it. I don’t think that I’m the only one who really enjoys shredding my paper at home and at work. Besides helping to avert identity theft, there is something quite satisfying about the task. We do recommend that you shred anything with personal information before bringing it to the depot. Where your paper goes after it leaves the depot depends on the ever changing markets, but it ultimately involves shredding and washing to produces a mulch used to produce more paper.
Maybe it’s a guy thing, but what really turns me on is the Mega-Shredder owned by Steel Pacific, the Vancouver Island owned company that handles all the scrap metals collected by GIRO. “Keep It In Play” is in fact the motto of Steel Pacific, a company with an environmental focus.
This monster shredder, located in Victoria, is twice the size of the recycling depot, and can even shred whole cars (after the oil is drained and mercury switches removed). The end result is fist-size balls of steel which are mainly sold to a re-bar mill in Seattle.
The pallets of electronic waste collected by GIRO are also destined for a shredder located at Teck Cominco in Trail BC by way of Encorp and not illegally shipped offshore to pollute the environment of other countries. The glass in computer monitors and televisions contains a lot of lead so it is put directly in a smelter which gets the lead out. The remainder of the e-waste goes through the shredder after which a multi-stage process takes out the valuable metals.
The end product is a mountain of slag containing mostly iron, which is used in the production of Portland cement. In future Encorp will expand on the e-waste it accepts to include microwaves, toasters and more.
When you bring things to the depot it is always nice to know the path they take.
These are just a few examples of how Gabriola’s recyclables are kept in play.
Keep on recycling.
It’s the right thing to do.
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