Former village councilor Fred Walters attended our last council meeting to give a report on the workings of Beiseker Recycling. Fred has always been a huge supporter of recycling here in the village, and volunteers countless hours to that program! He was able to report that the recycling programs here are meeting their goals, and are pretty much breaking even as far as cost is concerned.
Village home owners pay a small bi-monthly fee to have weekly curbside pick-up of most common recyclables - paper, plastic, metal cans, glass, and cardboard. Residents can also recycle used oil, old batteries, old electronics, paint and paint cans free of charge, at the recycling depot behind the Public Works Shop.
I believe we have one of the most comprehensive recycling programs for a municipality our size anywhere in Alberta! We should be proud of that.
Most of the materials we recycle get turned into new products which helps reduce Beiseker's overall carbon footprint. It costs less in energy to recycle a material into a new product, than it does to use raw materials. For example, producing paper products is cheaper when using recycled paper than producing paper from wood pulp in a paper mill. Overall, it requires less energy and therefore produces less environmental pollutants, mainly carbon dioxide.
I am concerned that the supporters of creating energy by burning what is now recycled, have not done the math. Incineration might actually raise the amount of pollutants (CO2) and therefore enlarge our carbon footprint!
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