2021 Waste Minimization Awards

 

SWRC is proud to present the 2021 Saskatchewan Waste Minimization Awards, sponsored by SaskTel. Awards are given to Saskatchewan individuals and organizations that have gone above and beyond to reduce their own waste, and in doing so, are an inspiration to others.

The 26th annual Saskatchewan Waste Minimization Awards ceremony was held on April 28th in Regina as part of the SWRC's ReForum conference.

On hand to assist with the awards presentations was Hon. Warren Kaeding, Minister of Environment (left side of photos), and Henry Mutafya, SaskTel (Right side of photos).

 

MUNICIPALITY (<5,000): Town of Churchbridge

At the Transfer Site the Town accepts shingles, which are ground down and used for street dust control. Metal is accepted for recycling. Concrete is repurposed for repairing Town wells. A clean woodpile is repurposed into wood chips for use on walking paths. There is composting for yard and garden waste. In addition, there is a large sea can for electronics recycling that will be collected by EPRA. In 2021, the Town implemented a battery-recycling program for any batteries less than 5kg.

 

MUNICIPALITY (<5,000): Town of Biggar

In 2021 Biggar began offering a curbside organics pickup that expanded previous yard waste compost services to also include household organics waste. In addition to improving garbage, recycling and organics services for residents, Biggar is also focused on green initiatives and has installed three solar power systems to help offset the power consumption of several facilities.

 

NON PROFIT: Cosmo Industries

A new service, Cans4cosmo, collects deposit containers from homes in Saskatoon then sorts and delivers them to SARCAN. Cosmo now offers reusable mesh Kwik bags to their subscribers to use within the program. They had a goal of 150 subscribers to start but ended receiving twice as many requests. Because of the high number of requests, they’ve placed another order for the reusable bags and expect to divert 22,000 bags from the landfill in 2022. Along with this new project Cosmo has been involved with creating and growing Saskatoon’s civic recycling program with which they are still involved through the Multi-Unit Residential Recycling program.

 

INDIVIDUAL: Tammy Shields

Whether she is demonstrating grain bag rolling at a waste transfer station or sitting down with municipal councilors in a board room, Tammy has a unique ability to bring people together. Her specialty is developing solutions to manage hard-to-recycle/recover materials used in the farming sector. Tammy was instrumental in starting grain bag recycling pilots. Today, she helps keep North America’s first government-regulated ag plastics recycling program running with 8,500 tonnes of grain bags collected over four years.

 

SCHOOL: Douglas Park School Green Team

The team members have diverted approximately 1,700 pounds of recyclable materials from the landfill. They collect the recyclable materials from each classroom and transfer them to the main recycling bin. They also compost with a small vermicompost bin. By creating videos they educate on how to have an eco-friendly Halloween, how to properly dispose of masks and to encourage reusable ones. They also randomly delivered 110 reusable produce bags to mailboxes around the neighbourhood to inspire members of the community to reduce their dependence on single-use plastic produce bags.

 

CORPORATION: Loraas Disposal North Ltd.

The Pumpkin Recycling Initiative diverted over 7,000 kilograms of pumpkins from landfill. Loraas partnered with Saskatoon Public Libraries across the city to allow convenient locations for collections, and to educate the public about organic waste diversion. The pumpkins were composted at the Loraas Organics in-vessel facility just north of Saskatoon and will be Class A compost after 13 weeks.

 

SMALL BUSINESS: HYON

In 2021, HYON was able to divert a total of 50,000 pounds of waste from landfills by selling used goods of consumers and organizations like the Government of Saskatchewan, McMaster University, SGI, and SaskTel. By managing material assets through every stage of the sustainability model, they aim to reach net-zero where no items go to waste.

 

 

 

Thanks to SaskTel for their support of the Saskatchewan Waste Minimization Awards.