Posts
Pacific Carpet Recycling
We love to work closely with green conscious businesses who care as much the environment as we do. That’s why we’re really excited to have Pacific Carpet Recycling as a partner. They are the only carpet and underlay recycler in Vancouver, and they’re doing great work around the Lower Mainland.
Carpet is something that most people take for granted; not really giving it much thought until they are looking to renovate a space. But the amount of waste created from carpet being thrown into our landfills is mindblowing — as much as 80 million lbs are thrown into garbage dumps in Metro Vancouver alone! Even worse, it can take as long as 50 years for it to break down once it’s in there. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Being a petroleum-based product, many types of carpet and underlay are recyclable, and can be made into new flooring, clothing, furniture, auto parts, and other items we use on a daily basis.
In recent years, PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) carpet has gained popularity, because it’s manufactured using recycled pop bottles. In theory, this sounds like an excellent green alternative, but at the present time there are no effective means to recycle carpet once it is made from this material. If you are looking for the most environmentally mindful flooring, PCR suggests opting for Nylon carpeting instead, which is completely recyclable.
Though Pacific Carpet Recycling does not deal directly with the consumer public, Green Coast Rubbish has partnered exclusively with them, allowing us to remove the carpet from your home or business (and any other waste that you might need hauled away) and deliver it to PCR on your behalf. If you have any questions about recycling carpet, or the work we do at Green Coast Rubbish, please never hesitate to contact us.
Paint Removal and Recycling
Often the easiest way to brighten and freshen up your space is to add a coat of paint. While it can work wonders to liven up your home or office, sometimes we find ourselves with an excess left-over, and are unsure of where/how to safely dispose of it. The BC Product Care Association website suggests always keeping in mind the BUD rule when purchasing materials:
- B – Buy only the amount you need.
- U – Use all the paint you buy.
- D – Dispose of any leftover paint safely.
To cut down on waste, it’s a good idea to calculate how much you’ll need initially for your project before you begin. Most paint retailers are happy to help estimate the amount you will require, which will save money and minimize paint wastage. But regardless of how closely you estimate, often you’re still left with at least a little bit remaining. If you can’t re-purpose the paint for use in future touch-ups or other projects (in the case of lighter colours, they can sometimes be used as primers), there are environmentally mindful ways of disposing of it.
Green Coast Rubbish often helps our clients deal with removing excess materials such as paint, stain, and shellac, and diverts them to depots who specialize in their safe processing. In 2012 alone, GCR helped recycle more than 2438 litres! Many of the facilities around the Lower Mainland even offer programs where they simply give the paint away free to those who can make use of it (as long as the remaining product is properly sealed and still labeled). By being inventive about ways that we can re-purpose paint, we can make our spaces and communities more beautiful, while still protecting the earth in the process.
For more information about the types of products that can be recycled, check out the BC Product Care website. If you have questions about the types of products and waste Green Coast Rubbish can handle on behalf of your home or your business – never hesitate to drop us a line.
ReStore and Habitat for Humanity
Taking care of the environment, and helping people in our communities: these are two fundamental ideas we’ve built our company on from the start. They help us strive to reuse or recycle many unwanted materials, keeping them out of our landfills. If those materials can then be used to help local families put a roof over their heads, why wouldn’t we do everything possible to make that happen?
Because we care so much about this, we like to give shout-outs to similar minded businesses who are working hard to make a difference. One such business is ReStore, which opened it’s doors recently in North Vancouver.
ReStore is a non-profit organization that sells new and used building and home improvement materials that have been donated to them by builders and homeowners; with 100% of the money raised going toward Habitat for Humanity initiatives in the Greater Vancouver area. Run almost entirely by volunteers, ReStore/HH helps to provide modest-income families with affordable, accessible housing options (while at the same time giving some pretty sweet deals to people looking for items to complete renovation projects around their homes).
We believe in the great things that organizations like Habitat for Humanity are doing locally, so whenever possible GCR salvages usable material from the jobs we do and donates them. A recent demolition of an office on the North Shore allowed us to dismantle approximately 790 glass blocks from their walls and send them to ReStore—which could potentially translate to a resale value of thousands of dollars—toward their efforts in helping more people have homes in our communities.
Last year alone we were able to donate approximately 9 tonnes of various goods and materials to charities throughout Vancouver who can make good use of them. Check out what ReStore is doing; they are located at 126 Harbour Avenue in North Vancouver.
Where do you go to recycle your old carpet?
Have you recently renovated your home? Perhaps you finally replaced that old shag carpeting with some sleek looking hardwood, or swapped that dingy carpet with some fresh linoleum? The fact is that many of us remain unsure about what to do with our old carpet-avoid bad carpet karma and recycle it today!
Did you know that most carpet is comprised of plastic fibers, and therefore can and should be recycled. With roughly 250 million pounds of carpet waste turning up in Canadian landfills every year (6 billion in the U.S.), there is much work to be done. These sad rolls of ditched carpet are second only to diapers in terms of landfill volume, contributing to 4% of landfill waste, and take over five decades to degrade.
That’s where Aspera Recycling comes in. Aspera is a 100% Canadian owned and operated company, leading the industry in waste diversion and recycling of both carpet and carpet underlay. With 9 collection sites across Canada, Aspera is working from multiple platforms to ensure all carpet is diverted from the landfills.
How Aspera works:
-
-
- Sorts and organizes carpet based on polymer content
- Shears carpet fibers which contain plastic
- Converts the carpet shears into pure fibers
- Fibers are then prepared for shipping and reintroduced into the manufacturing process
-
We at Green Coast Rubbish are excited to announce our on-going partnership with Aspera recycling. Our first project will save roughly 85 tonnes of carpet and carpet underlay from ending up in a landfill, and involves recycling nearly 600 units of carpeting from two towers in downtown Vancouver. We are proud to be partnering up with Aspera Recycling on this and many projects to come.
If you need advice or require any assistance in disposing of your old unwanted carpet, contact us today with any questions.
Partners
