What Happens To Recycled Containers?

The picture above is a simple, but accurate overview of the path your recyclables follow once collected at any of the 83 ENVIRO-DEPOT™ across the province.

Once you have redeemed your recyclables at the ENVIRO-DEPOT™, the containers are counted and sorted into large nylon bags (or plastic bins for glass) by product. These bags and bins are picked up by a local transport company. Before loading the bags and bins onto the truck, the truck driver scans a bar-code as well as the product and quantity for each bag at the pickup point using a portable bar-code scanner. The materials are then driven to one of three Regional Processing Centres(RPC) located around the province.

Once at the Processing Centre, the bags are again scanned off of the truck so that our tracking system knows they were received successfully at the RPC, and the information for all the day's activities is downloaded to a computer located at the RRFB main offices in Truro through data downloading stations located at each Processing Centre.

RRFB Nova Scotia uses a custom-designed software package called ROCAPS® (Recovery Operations Collection And Payment System, developed by FEOM Holdings Inc.) to electronically track all materials that are recycled in Nova Scotia and pay all vendors (i.e. ENVIRO-DEPOT™ Operators, trucking companies, Regional Processing Centres, etc.) for handling the materials.

As soon as the product is received at the RPC, most beverage containers, newsprint and corrugated cardboard are put through a special machine (a baler) and are compacted into large cubes called bales (with the exception of glass).

Once baled, the materials are again loaded onto a truck and sold to market where they are made into many useful products.

Pop bottles are made into t-shirts, carpet fibre and packaging. Newsprint can be recycled into insulation and kitty litter. Materials such as steel, glass and aluminum that are returned to their original form are good examples of closed-loop recycling.

Nova Scotia's Solid Waste Management Strategy proves that solid waste can not only be transformed into many useful products, but jobs and economic opportunities for our province as well. The possibilities are endless for Nova Scotia's newest resource... solid waste.