The Speakers

It was great to be a part of Vancity’s 65th anniversary celebration at the Orpheum Theatre in November. Paul Hawken had some great insight into the world of business. He reminded us to not be afraid of making mistakes, and to not rely on ‘hope’ alone – to action our goals. Louise Schwarz of the Recycling Alternative was also on stage with Mark Brand from Save on Meats and others, talking about the Vancouver business scene. Thanks to Louise for the personal shout-out on stage, it’s great to be part of this fantastic community. Louise is championing the Green Hub in Vancouver where residents and businesses will be able to conveniently go to one location for all of their recycling needs. Anything that you can think of that can be recycled would be accepted at the Green Hub and many local jobs would be created. Mattressrecycling.ca is involved in this exciting initiative. Let’s keep Vancouver the best place in the world to live!

After an exciting (and very long) Sunday picking up from generous people in Metro Vancouver we collected a heaping load of food! This marks the successful completion of our first annual Covenant House Food Drive – we collected enough food to cover our conference table at Mattressrecycling.ca. Thank you to Sandeep Rai and Kelsey Klassen for donating their time and efforts to such a great cause. We collected from 15 houses from Abbotsford to Horseshoe Bay. Take a look at our bounty and Sandeep. Thanks to everyone who donated and helped.

Covenant House Bounty

Thank you Kelsey Klassen for writing this piece on our up-comming food drive! Click here.

Mattress Recycling Food Drive Vancouver

Peace @ Mattressrecycling.ca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting the management team and an owner of Urban Impact Recycling. I went on a behind the scenes tour of their new state-of-the-art facility in New Westminster. Their facility is incredible, with cutting edge european processing systems and machines that carefully separate and compress a long list of household recyclables. Their team of over a dozen on the recycling floor are part of a complex maze of mega-recycling systems. It was sot of like Star Wars for bottles, paper and plastic; the opposite end of the spectrum from the ‘Pickers’ in Wasteland.

Their New Branding

I had the pleasure of attending the Burnaby Business Excellence Awards Gala last night at the Hilton Metrotown. It was an elegant event with a great number of friendly Burnaby and Vancouver business professionals attending. Congratulations to General Fusion for winning in the Entrepreneurial Spirit category that Mattressrecycling.ca was competing in! Maybe we’ll win it next year… we better.

Fiona Forbes and Michael Eckford of Shaw Cable’s Urban Rush were the MC’s of the Gala which made for a good light-hearted laugh throughout the evening. I particularly enjoyed them making fun of the Mayor and the demanding photographer, among others.

Gala

Ice on Burnaby

It was through my everyday experiences growing up that I developed an awareness of the various recycling programs that exist: paper had always been recycled to save trees; at an early age I was told that plastic could be melted down and reformed for other uses; food composting programs in school instilled in me a sense of how food wastes can be put to good use, and I knew that metal was reusable from all the can recycling. But what about wood? Wood recycling was not encountered in my childhood experiences.

Through mattress recycling, I discovered that wood can be recycled. Bins set aside solely for wood, such as those at construction sites and other facilities, can be sent off to recycling depots so the wood may be reused for a surprising number of purposes. For example, wood can be reclaimed; in this case old wood is used for construction purposes in new structures, and this can improve a building’s LEED rating. Wood that cannot be reclaimed can still be recycled. This wood is often sent through grinders to be used for landscaping and garden purposes as mulch, for composting needs, and even for energy needs as biofuel.

Recycling wood has many benefits. The obvious benefit is that using recycled wood reduces the need to cut down more trees, which may turn out to be extremely important for Earth’s ecosystems. Recycled wood creates a market to go to for people who need wood products, but want to reduce their environmental impact. Another benefit is that wood recycled from products, such as mattresses, can save landfill space. Before mattress recycling existed in BC, mattresses, wood and all, were simply thrown out with other garbage, taking up space unnecessarily.

 
Individuals can recycle wood at some recycling depots, and via junk removal services. Typically, wood recycling is done by businesses and other large operations that consistently produce quantities of scrap wood. However, one significant way that individuals can reduce their wood waste is by recycling their mattresses, which contain wood and other recyclable products!

Big day for Mattressrecycling.ca when we attended the Burnaby Business Excellence Awards yesterday at the Hilton Metrotown. Mattressrecycling.ca was shortlisted in the Entrepreneurial Spirit category! The mayor of Burnaby presented us with this fine looking plaque and a firm handshake.

Mattressrecycling.ca Plaque

It was great to meet members of the local business community including reps from ABC Metal Recycling, Left Coast Naturals, Save On Foods and many more. Thanks to the BBOT and the City of Burnaby!

The Roaring Twenties

Thank you to Carole Alexander for organizing and being the leading force in this great Recycling Art Exhibit under the Joyce Street Skytrain Station. There is even a “Fridge Henge”. Check it out in person if you can.

Take a look at page A11 of Yesterday’s North Shore News or read the article on Mattressrecycling.ca here!

 

On the weekend of August 19-21, Translink, BC Transit, and the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) held the Connecting Communities Youth Summit at the University of British Columbia. Thanks to the organizations, youths from across BC learned about and discussed topics regarding transportation and sustainability. These topics involved the ambitious Regional Growth Strategy adopted by the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). The Regional Growth Strategy is a plan to establish Vancouver as a sustainable and thriving community,  while effectively meeting the demands of a growing population.  Other topics at the youth summit discussed in more detail included urban planning, cycling, and the development of Vancouver’s transit hubs.