2001 Saskatchewan Waste Minimization Awards

The Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council and Tetra Pak Canada hosted Saskatchewan's sixth Waste Minimization Awards ceremony on October 9th in Regina. The Awards recognize waste minimization leadership by individuals, youth, non-profit organizations, municipalities, and corporations for the year 2001.

The 2001 Individual award was given to John and Ada Drobot of Saskatoon. John and Ada single-handedly started and operate a recycling program for their high rise apartment building. They arranged for a paper recycling bin outside the building, set up bins in the building to collect tin, glass, plastic, dairy and deposit containers. The Drobots collect all the material and deliver it to local recyclers themselves. We congratulate their initiative.

The Youth award went to the Kelvington 4-H Beef Club for its efforts to collect automotive batteries and veterinary containers for recycling. The Club holds blitz events where they go to farms and gather up stockpiles of lead acid batteries. These are stored by the East Central Co-op, who also arranges for Western Batteries to come out and pick them up when there is enough to fill a semi-trailer. The club has raised $3,000 with the initiative so far. They've also recently added IVOMEC veterinary containers to their program. These products are used by veterinarians and ranchers and come in various sizes of plastic pails. Merial Canada, the makers of the products, gives refunds for each container collected.

The Non-profit organization award goes to the Prince Albert Community Workshop. The workshop has been operating in Prince Albert for 38 years. It serves 217 clients and employs 48 people full-time. They recycle wire for SaskPower (over 69,000 pounds last year), provide paper recycling for P.A. businesses and institutions and run a large confidential shredding business. The workshop recycled 545 tonnes of all types of paper last year. The workshop also recycles milk cartons and is involved with computer recycling. In the past year, they have recycled 5,133 computers and other electronic items. They've recently contracted with Weyerhaeuser to recycle employee paper, milk containers, tins, books as well as various industrial products.

The Municipal award goes to the Town of Radville. Radville has a recycling program for all types of paper and tins with plans for expansion. They've set up a drop-off location for compostable materials in town. They've closed their landfill to residential garbage and put in a transfer station. All of these efforts have been augmented with a tag program for garbage. All garbage has to have tags on it before it can be picked up. These initiatives have resulted in a reduction in materials going to landfill by between fifty and sixty percent.

The Corporate Leadership award for 2001 goes to Weyerhaeuser Saskatchewan. Weyerhaeuser employs about 800 people at Prince Albert Pulp & Paper in the manufacture of fine paper and market pulp. One of the biggest waste reduction measures at P.A. was the introduction of a Recovery Burner which burns hog fuel (bark and wood waste) to replace natural gas. Weyerhaeuser's Environment Committee also successfully lobbied to get a staff position in charge of salvage and scrap materials. This person's job is to reduce the mill's waste by selling or giving away materials that the mill no longer requires. The Environment Committee also held a household hazardous waste collection day for its employees in June, 2001. The mill entered into a partnership with the local Community Workshop to provide recycling bins on site for a variety of materials. In return, the Workshop's short wood waste will be burned in Weyerhaueser's hog system to fuel the mill.

All of the winners demonstrate a strong commitment to waste minimization and have made our province a better place to live. We congratulate them!