Where does it all go?

BLUE BAGGING IT! - Where do all the blue bags go and what happens to them?

So with all this talk about recycling, you must be curious about what happens to our recyclables.

Well before you say it or think it, no, Thunder Bay's recyclables do not go to the landfill. We're going to debunk that myth for you right here and now.

When our recyclables are collected from our curb side they go to the Recool plant (Recool is an MRF which stands for Material Recovery Facility). When the Blue Bags are unloaded at Recool, they are sorted into two sections, containers and fibres. Fibres being all paper materials and containers being all the plastic, tin, aluminum and tetra packs. From there, the bags are emptied, inspected and sorted. With this dual system, it allows for an end product that is clean and marketable. The recyclables are then made into 46”x60”x30” bales which are sent out to be remanufactured in various markets. The different types of recyclables are packed in bales of cardboard, gloss paper (magazines), newsprint, aluminum, tin cans, #1 PET plastic bottles, #2 HDEP plastic bottles, tetra packs, glass, mixed plastic and even the Blue Bags get recycled. One of the companies Recool ships to recycled 22.3 billion used beverage cans in 2001, and by doing that they saved enough energy to heat and light over 320,000 homes for a year. The City of Thunder Bay Environmental Division has developed a unique and sensible alternative to shipping glass to Southern Ontario. All the glass jars and bottles that are collected curb side get crushed into small, granular-sized pieces and used as an aggregate substitute in road building around the landfill. As well, plastic grocery bags can be recycled, but you cannot put them in our Blue Bags. They need to be taken to Quality Market or Wal-Mart where they collect them for recycling.

So what do they do with the recyclables when they are shipped out?

When our recyclables get to their destinations, they are manufactured into many of the things we use in our everyday lives. Here is a list of just some of the many things our recyclables are made into.

Newspaper is used to make boxboard, cardboard is used to make new cardboard, office paper is used to make new paper products, and plastic grocery bags are recycled into new grocery bags.

Aluminum cans are used to create new cans, aluminum siding, baseball bats, car parts (like engine blocks, and water pumps), pie plates, CD’s, aluminum foil and airplanes.

Tin cans are used for making more tin cans since it is 100% recyclable and can be recycled over and over again without loss of quality. They can also be made into car parts, structural steel, chains and pipes. As well steel manufacturers cannot make new steel unless they have recycled steel to add to it.

-#1 PET plastic bottles are made into fibrefill, tote bags, clothing, film, carpet, rope, brush bristles, car bumpers and fleece.

#2 HDPE plastics (which are harder and stiffer than PET) are usually made into pipe, buckets, flower pots, garden edging, and recycling bins.

Tetra containers (like juice boxes and milk cartons) are made into paper towels and tissue with the cardboard part of it and the plastic and aluminum part are combined to make seedling pots and pails.

It takes less of our resources to remanufacture recyclables than it does to make them all from new resources. For each tonne of recycled paper, 17 trees are saved, 380 gallons of oil and 7000 gallons of water are conserved and recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television for 3 hours, this is the equivalent of using 1.9 litres of gas. Now how’s that for a savings?

If you have any more questions about recycling, visit the FAQ page.