Regional Recycling Surrey

To make sure we’re diverting as much waste from landfills as possible, it’s important to be aware of all the products that can be sent to your local recycling centers. There are many products that, if you separate them correctly, you can send directly to your local curbside recycling program.

Even so, as this varies depending on the capacities and facilities of the collection centers, it is always better to ask directly at your local collection center.

The products that can generally be deposited in recycling centers are:

• Paper, newspapers, magazines, and mixed papers (As long as they are clean)
• Bottles of plastic (almost all types)
• Glass jars and bottles
• Rigid plastic objects
• Cans, aluminum, steel, and metal containers

The production of human waste increases year by year. This vast amount of trash has formed islands hundreds of thousands of miles long in the oceans. There is so much litter that ends up in the oceans and on land that it has entered the food chain, greatly damaging biodiversity.

One way to reduce the amount of human waste is recycling in recycling centers; by lengthening the useful life of materials and preventing them from ending up in landfills, but also avoiding the production of new materials and thereby avoiding the over-exploitation of raw materials and the pollution that comes with the extraction of materials and their production.

Glass is infinitely recyclable, so it is critical to deposit it in the right place and prevent it from ending up in landfills, since glass never degrades and affects diversity and the environment if it is not treated correctly. Most of the glass found in landfills comes from discarded beverage bottles. In the United States, according to EPA data, the recycling rate for glass bottles is only 31.3%.

The best way to recycle glass bottles is to take them to local recycling centers, where you can even get paid for your bottle recycling. In most of these centers the price they pay per pound of glass is 0.1 USD/LB.

Also, recycling glass saves tons of natural resources, such as sand, soda ash, limestone, and feldspar. Recycling glass also reduces carbon dioxide emissions, as the glass from recycled bottles melts at a lower temperature than virgin materials, which means less energy consumption in the production of new bottles.

Sanitary landfills are designated sites for the disposal of garbage or other types of solid waste. Large holes are built at these sites into which garbage is buried. Until a few years ago, landfills were a major source of pollution due to the contact of toxic waste with the environment, but today they are designed to prevent waste from reaching and contaminating groundwater.

Sanitary landfills are built with a layering system that isolates debris from air and water, which is vital to preventing pollution. The garbage is compacted in cells to make the most of the available space, for which heavy machinery such as excavators and compaction equipment is used. Some of the polluting byproducts of garbage generation, such as methane, are captured and used to generate electricity. However, landfills continue to represent an important source of pollution, since when they reach their maximum capacity, the land on which they are built will take thousand of years to recover.

Electronic waste, also known as e-waste, is all parts of electronic devices or broken devices, such as household appliances, televisions, electric stoves, air conditioners, microwaves, radios, computers, mobile phones, batteries, hard drives, motherboards, circuits, monitors, etc., that we discard.

Most e-waste contains a series of highly polluting materials, including heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, lead, chromium, arsenic or antimony, which not only harm the environment, but are also highly dangerous for human health.

The best way to dispose of electronic waste is by recycling. Electronic waste contains precious metals including gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium, as well as significant amounts of iron, aluminum, and plastics, which can be recycled. Giving away electronic devices that are no longer needed is always the best option, but if it is a product that cannot be repaired, it is important to deposit it at a local recycling center that accepts electronic waste. Recycling centers reclaim many of the materials from which these products are made, including plastics, glass, metal, and aluminum that can be recovered and reused in new electronics.