Garbage: How to make less of it, while still getting the most from life.
When it comes to reducing trash, Nova Scotia really is top of the heap. Our recycling and composting programs are the envy of the world. Officials from other countries frequently come to our province to learn how to do what we’re already doing very well. You know what’s really been wonderful about the way we’ve whittled our waste? It’s created a whole new world of businesses and jobs for our fellow Nova Scotians (we’ll call them Green Collar Workers). Some have designed new eco-friendly products for us to enjoy. Others have figured out what to do with our stuff when we’re done with it so it doesn’t just get dumped. But there’s always room for improvement. So here are some ways we can continue to make the rest of Canada and the world green with envy.
Composting – The Rotten Truth Revealed!
Paint – Don’t Kick That Can to the Curb!
Cellphones, Electronics, VHSs and Tapes
Garbage Day – What Goes Where?
Pills, Poisons, and Pesticides
From Trash to Treasure
Assorted Scraps
Composting – The Rotten Truth Revealed!
Got a green bin beside your house? That means you’re a member of the composting club. Most municipalities across Nova Scotia collect our egg shells, coffee grounds, apple cores and yard waste curbside and turn them into dark, rich, natural fertilizer for use on our public gardens and green spaces.
What should we toss in the green bin curbside?
Fruit & vegetable peelings, table scraps, meat, fish bones, dairy products, cooking oil & fat, bread, rice, pasta, coffee grounds & filters, tea bags, eggshells, grass, leaves & brush, house & garden plant waste, sawdust & wood shavings. Some municipalities also accept boxboard (cereal, shoe, cracker & cookie boxes), soiled paper, paper towel rolls and food napkins.
Contact your municipality for more details on what goes where for garbage, compost and recycling.
Make Your Own Mulch!
You can also build your own backyard composter to feed your hungry garden. Dig in here.
Mighty Big Mythsdia
Composting has been known to cause the odd conundrum. Let's break down a few of those myths:
It attracts racoons or other vermin.
Done properly, your green bin or heap won't attract racoons or other vermin. With a backyard bin or pile, keep it enclosed, don't add any meat bones/scraps or dairy, and turn it frequently. With your municipal green bin, simply wrap up bones and meat scraps in a cereal box. Want to be really safe? Keep any of the things racoons and other vermin find extra tasty in your freezer until pick-up day.
My kitchen bin is bringing fruit flies in the house.
Don't blame the bin! Fruit flies are a fact of life in summer. They fly in through your open door and even hitchhike in as eggs on the fruits and veggies you bought at the grocery store. Try washing all your produce as soon as you get it home. And keep the lid on your kitchen bin closed tightly so they can't get in there to breed. Yes, there are going to be lots of them buzzing around your outside bin. But remember — those flies are simply a sign that the compost is already working, being broken down naturally to come back as a sunflower or rose.
Tossing your scraps in with the regular garbage will not solve your fruit fly problem. They'll just be buzzing around your trashcan instead of your bin. And you will be breaking regulations as compost is not allowed in your garbage.
It's smelly.
Again, if you've got a backyard heap, you've got to turn it once in a while or the neighbours may kick up a stink. As for your municipal green bin, keeping it in a shady area will help. Some municipalities switch to weekly green bin pickup over the summer for this reason. Find out if yours does here or here.
Pet droppings are biodegradable, right? So can I put them in the compost?
Live in an Apartment? Put Some Worms to Work!
You don't need a yard or a municipal green bin to get in on composting culture. Apartments, condos and dormitories are regulated to provide composting services. If yours doesn’t, call your superintendent and ask for it. And if you want to make your own compost, a small box of red wigglers will gladly munch your kitchen waste away and turn it into potting soil., Find out more here.
Got a pile of other questions about composting? Check with your municipality.
Paint - Don't Kick That Can to the Curb!
How many cans of paint are hiding in your basement? There are the cans of Dusty Rose and Hunter Green that, with any luck, will never be in vogue again. There's that little bit of Harvest Wheat you were saving to touch up that wall, except last year you painted it Toasted Almond instead. And the leftovers of that are down there now, too.
If you've got the blues over the number of hues taking up space in your life, here's the answer: take them to an ENVIRO-DEPOT™. Leftover paint of all colours can be recycled into new paint products. It's the eco-friendly way to give old paint the brush off. Click here for more info.
PS: If the can is empty and dry, feel free to put it out on garbage day. In Cumberland County, you can put your empty, dry paint cans in the blue bag.
Cellphones, Electronics, VHSs and Tapes
Fads in technology change so fast, something that's in one day is totally out the next. It really wasn't that long ago that we all ran out and got a Walkman so we could listen to Wham! on our way to work. Then we made the change from cassette players to CDs. Now it's mp3s. And how many of those players have you been through? And don't even talk about cell phones! While the average plan is for three years, most of us flip that phone after 18 months.
This leaves many of us with a huge eco-moral dilemma. How do we get rid of our obsolete technology?
Cell phones
Oooh, it was so shiny and new at first. So sleek and petite. There was a time you couldn't stand to be apart. But now you've found someone new and the love affair is over. So how do you say good-bye? Especially when your former best friend is filled with toxic metals and a rechargeable battery that are hazardous to land fills?
Take it back to the dealer.
All cell phone retailers either participate in a national recycling service or offer their own.
Drop it off here:
Canada has a national recycling program called Recycle My Cell. Find out where you can drop yours off here.
Help Feed Nova Scotia
This is the official charity of the new national cell phone recycling plan. Every ten phones they collect get turned into 50 cans of veggies or other much-needed food. Find out where to drop yours off here.
Pitch it in for a good cause.
The National Cell Phone Collection program is a fundraising program that will pay you $1 for each phone you collect. Get your school, club, or group in on this one by clicking here
Electronics
Ever tried to get rid of an old TV, desktop computer, laptop, or printer? It seems almost nobody wants our out-of-date technology. Landfills won't take them either - and rightly so, because they're chock-full of toxic materials.
But wait! There is someone who does want your techno-junk! It's Nova Scotia's e-waste recycling program. So when it's time for you to hit delete on that old electronic device, you can feel good knowing that it's being harvested, upgraded, and rebooted into something new. Drag yours to the trash here. This electronic waste is recycled appropriately.
CDs/VHSs/Cassettes
Picture a plastic Everest. That's what it would look like if every one of us suddenly decided to just throw out all those CDs we were using for data back up, all those VHSs that are collecting dust since we got the new digital recorder, and all those cassettes of bad 80s music we no longer admit to liking. So are we doomed to carrying them around with us for the rest of our days? No! Send them off to Greendisk.com and they'll be turned into new jewel cases, rewriteable CDs, or cases for CDs and DVDs.
Garbage Day - What Goes Where?
On laundry day we sort our darks, lights, and delicates. On garbage day we sort our recyclables, compostables, refundables, and trash.
Wondering what goes where in your part of the province? Check with your local municipality here or here.
Beverage Containers - Get Your Deposit Back!
Cheers to us! Nova Scotia has one of the highest return rates for beverage containers in North America - another reason to be proud of our recycling efforts. To find out which beverage containers fall under this program, how much of a deposit you pay for each, how much you get back, and where to go to get your money, just pour over this page.
Pills, Poisons, and Pesticides
Some things just seem impossible to get rid of. What are we supposed to do with the last few pills of that prescription? Dead rechargable batteries — what do we do with them? And what about that bottle of lawn pesticide that our municipality outlawed?
The good news is hazardous products like these all have a safe place to go. You'll find a full list of products accepted at the Household Hazardous Waste Disposal site in your area here.
Take rechargeable batteries back to your retailer where they will be recycled through a national program.
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From Trash to Treasure
Yard sales, flea markets, and online auction/give-away sites prove that no matter what we're trying to get rid of, someone else is out there looking for it. You could even make some money at the same time. Or make a trade for something you need.
Check out these popular sites:
Freecycle.ca (A nonprofit movement of people who are giving and getting stuff for free.)
Craigslist.com(Local classifieds for over 500 cities in 50 countries worldwide)
Throwplace.com (The Internet's Landfill Alternative)
eBay.ca (The Internet's most popular auction site)
nsmaterials.com (A free service that seeks to reduce waste by promoting the exchange of reusable materials)
Assorted Scraps
Diapers
The average child goes through 5,000-7,000 disposable diapers before he or she is fully toilet trained. That's a lot of plastic, wood pulp, and other materials piling up in the landfill, not to mention the child's contribution. There's no doubt that disposables are convenient and the right choice for many parents. But alternatives, such as cloth, do exist with some areas even enjoying diaper service that picks up used ones for cleaning and drops off a fresh stock regularly. Check your Yellowpages to see if there's a service near you. Or for more really earth-friendly solutions, look into either of these Nova Scotian companies:
Nurtured products for parenting
When Tires Retire
Every year, over 900,000 tires are saved from the landfill and collected from tire retailers across the province as part of Nova Scotia's Used-Tire Management program. If you've got some old tires rolling around, you can return up to four of them to any tire retailer in the province at no cost. You can also just leave them behind at the retailer when you buy a new set. Here's the full info.
Beater Be-Gone
Some of us take the concept of “driving that old beater into the ground” seriously. And that leaves us with a dead car either in the driveway or at the side of the road. If you have a derelict vehicle, or know of one, do the environment a favour and have it sent to a recycling facility. Here's how.