‘It all starts at the curb’

Several Norfolk residents got a firsthand look at the county’s recycling process during a tour of the Norfolk Materials Recovery Facility in Simcoe Wednesday morning.

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“We decided to try a weekday during March break to give parents with kids, looking for something to do, an opportunity to get out. I haven’t seen as many kids as we thought would be here, but we are seeing a lot of people who are just generally interested in it,” said Andrew Grice, general manager of Norfolk County’s Environmental and Infrastructure Services team.

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“We’ll probably be at 150 people by the time we’re done (at noon), we’ve still got a couple hours left,” said Grice. “More than 100 for sure, which I would consider a big success.

Visitors were able to see the sorting in action. Not up close, for safety reasons, but close enough to see and hear the size and scope of the process.

“It’s a lot more beneficial to see it in real life than it is to just see a piece of machinery,” said Grice.

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HGC Management operations manager Josh Harding led one of the tours, noting incoming black-box recyclable materials go from a bunker (pile) to a conveyor line, through a tumbler, another conveyor line, then through magnets.

“Everything is hand sorted here,” said Harding. “It gets separated into different material bunkers, then they put it into the baler.”

Harding stressed the importance of residents properly filling their curbside recycling containers – citing the extra cost and waste when improper items are included – when asked why certain items were found in the bales.

“It all starts at the curb,” said Harding.

Bales are sold to companies in Canada and the United States.

Sorted bales on display Wednesday included HDPE (high density polyethylene), to be shipped to the US to make plastic chairs; bulky, to be sold to a Toronto company for reprocessing and pelletizing; PET (polyethylene terephthalate) to be sold to a company in Clyde, Ohio for carpet making, water bottle plastic and clothing; corrugated, to be used by a Scarborough company to make cereal boxes and corrugated cardboard boxes; hardpack (papers), to be used for making plastic chairs; cans, going to Greensboro, Georgia; and tin, to be sold to a Hamilton company.

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“Impressive,” said Lorna McMaster from Port Rowan, who was in a tour led by Harding. “I was impressed with what they’re doing. And that it (HGC) is a private business, and they’re making money at it, supporting themselves and paying people with jobs.”

“I’m really impressed,” said Gale Manhire, also from Port Rowan. “I didn’t think a lot of this could be reused. He (Harding) said there’s only 5 per cent that goes into the landfill. It kind of restores my faith because I thought a lot was just going to landfill.”

HGC Management also operates processing facilities in Brantford, Windsor, Whitby, Trenton, Belleville, Cornwall and Sudbury.

“Our team does a tremendous job ensuring as many items as possible are entertained from landfill,” said Norfolk County Mayor Amy Martin in a media release.

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