Overview of the Beaumont Plastic Pilot Project

[Re] Waste wants to work with you! We are looking for Beaumont residents to participate in the pilot. Be part of the solution to help divert your household waste from landfills! There will be three (3) weekly curb side plastic collections that will start on November 26, 2020 and end on December 10, 2020.  We will collect the plastic in the transparent bags that will be provided at CoBIC Connect and our [Re] Waste team will sort the plastic by type and colour. Our goal is to determine the average volume of plastic per household to see if we can make Beaumont the first City where residents do not contribute their plastic waste to the landfill.

Join Corey Saban, the Founder and CEO of [Re] Waste at CoBIC to discuss the pilot project, ask questions and see how we are currently repurposing plastic waste. There will be transparent garbage bags that will be provided to the residents for the three plastic collections. We will be following the most up to date COVID protocols and will limit the number of people allowed in the space to 15 people. We will do our best to reach out to individuals who sign up for the pilot project and try to schedule time slots to ensure we do not exceed capacity as well as limit any wait times.

When:

Friday November 13, 2020 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Saturday November 14, 2020 from 9:00am - 12:00pm

Where:

CoBIC Connect

5031 52 Ave, 

Beaumont, AB 

T4X 1E5

November 26, 2020 - Morning collection

December 3, 2020 - Morning collection

December 10, 2020 - Morning collection

First, to be able to perform the pilot project efficiently, we are collecting only clean plastic. This is no different than the cleaning that is provided before putting plastic in the blue bag- a quick rinse to ensure there are no contaminants.

Second, how to identify plastic types? On most plastics there is a recycling triangle that has a number in the middle ranging from 1 through 7. Sometimes the numbers are hard to find or are not identified. When they are not identified, we consider this type of plastic as OTHER (Type 7)

Type 1 - PET - Clamshell containers, salad containers, clear bottles

Type 2 - HDPE -  Milk jugs, shampoo bottles, bottle caps

Type 3 - PVC - Clamshell containers, plastic packaging

Type 4 - LDPE - Yogurt container lids, Play-Doh lids, Bottles

Type 5 - PP - Yogurt containers, hangers, coffee cup lids, restaurant to go containers, bottle caps

Type 6 - PS - Food containers, cookie trays

Type 7 - Other - Bottles, individually packaged yogurt containers, lunchables.

*If you have any questions or are unsure about the type of plastic, please contact our team*

We are not currently collecting plastic bags or soft plastic such as:

• Single Use grocery bags
• Saran wrap, cling wrap and/ or stretch wrap
• Garbage bags, recycling bags
• Bread bags
• Cereal Bags
• Cracker bags
• Salad bags
• Tarps
• Plastic poly sheets
• Film

Once we collect the plastic, [Re] Waste will transport the plastic to a facility to weigh the plastic bags, sort the plastic by type and colour. Once the plastic is sorted by type then we weigh the plastic again. We will shred the plastic into plastic flakes which will be used to create 100% recycled plastic products. 

Q: Why do we need to separate our plastic and not keep putting it in our recycling bags?

A: As much as we love to believe that recycling reuses the items in the recycling bags, the unfortunate truth is that only 9% is recycled in Canada. [Re] Waste is trying to provide a transparent process in handling plastic.

Q: Do I have to clean the plastic?

A: We ask that plastic is clean. Labels and adhesives do not need to be removed. 

Q: Do I have to sort the plastic?

A: No, please put the clean plastic in the transparent bag. [Re] Waste will sort the plastic.

Q: How is the plastic being collected?

A: We will collect the plastic through the curb side collection process. This will be a similar curb side collection as having your garbage collected. 

Q: Why are you not collecting plastic bags?

A: We are currently collecting hard plastics since these plastics can be granulated into plastic flakes. Plastic bags will cause the granulator to jam. 

Q: Why are you only scheduling three (3) plastic collections?

A: We are trying to collect the volumes of plastic that an average household produces in one week. With three separate collections, we will be able to get an accurate projection of what 100 households produce in plastic waste per week.

Q: Are my tax dollars being used for this pilot project.

A: No, [Re] Waste is covering the costs of this pilot project and we are thankful to the city of Beaumont and their residents to allow us the opportunity to perform this project.

Q: Will [Re] Waste collect old or broken kids toys?

A: No, we will not be collecting kids plastic toys through this pilot project.