Wes Abbott City of London Recycling 

Wes Abbott from the City of London gave us details on the City's solid waste recycling program.  The City now diverts 45% of solid waste and keeps it out of the city dump.  The dump has a projected life of nine years and it normally takes eight years to get approval for a new or expanded site.  The diverted solid waste goes to the city owned recycling centre.  99% of the material is recycled and the centre makes a positive cash flow from most of the waste.  The current cost of the recycling is about $100 per household- much lower that most people estimate.  In addition the cost of garbage removal for London is third lowest in the province.

 

Wes gave us instruction on what to put into the two streams of recycling 1) paper- including box board, newspaper, fine paper and other wood fiber products, 2)containers - cans, bottles, Aluminum foil, and anything that could hold water.

 

To encourage further recycling, Wes provided club members with a desk side blue box to catch the 10% of paper products that goes into the regular garbage.