Above: Morinville Bottle Depot Manager Jenna Haison explains recycling to Notre Dame students Wednesday. – Lucie Roy Photo
by Lucie Roy
Earth Day turned into a week of activities at Ecole Notre Dame School. On Monday students learned about oil spills, Tuesday was protecting nature, and on Wednesday (Earth Day) it was learning about bottle recycling. Thursday’s topic is wild nature.
Morinville Bottle Depot Manager Jenna Haison made Wednesday’s presentation to students on bottle recycling.
Haison said aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles can take up to a million years to biodegrade and recycling helps keep them out of the landfill.
“The cans get melted down and made into cans again, so if you are drinking from a can you might have already drank from that can before,” she said. “It gets reused into the same thing.”
Bi-Metal containers are strong cans that are melted down and made into car parts.
But cans and containers are not the only items that get another life. Haison said beer bottles get rinsed out and refilled up to fifteen times before they are ground up. There are little nubs on the bottom of the beer bottle and every time the bottle gets reused they shave off a little nub to know how many times it was reused.
Haison went on to say old milk jugs can be made into plastic chairs, and that their class chairs may have once been a milk jug.
The Bottle Depot Manager said glass is a little bit more fun to work with. “The fiberglass gets broken down and put inside your house and keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer,” she said. “Sometimes glass is crushed up and mixed in with paint on the roads. When driving at night you can see the lines better because the glass reflects the light.
Haison explained the process of bringing the bottles to the Morinville Depot which are in turn sent to the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation (ABCRC) who in turn sell the items to manufacturers. They probably send one load a day to Edmonton, which means 22 pallets and 44 bags stacked on top of each other.
