EcoSuperior Environmental Programs

Lessons Learned by a Pair of Recycling Gumshoes

There’s a bit of mystery surrounding the secret life of your recyclables. Where do they go once they leave the curb? What happens to them at the recycling facility? Do they actually just end up at the landfill? To track down the truth, we jumped at the chance to go straight to the source and tagged along on the public tour of ReCool Canada’s recycling plant. The tour gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how recyclables are collected, sorted, processed, and marketed in Thunder Bay. We also discovered a lot of helpful recycling facts and tips that we thought we should share.

Ready to put your creative skills to work?

EcoSuperior Environmental Programs is coordinating its first annual Recycled Wreath Contest & Auction as a unique fund raising effort as well as an opportunity to promote re-use and recycling. Local crafters, artists, schools, and community organizations are invited to create a wreath, suitable for hanging on a wall or door, indoors or out, made of primarily re-used or recycled materials. Wreaths will be displayed at the CLE & Sports Dome "Fall Into Winter" Home Show (at the Sports Dome) October 14 – 16. The wreaths will be offered for sale in a silent auction with all proceeds supporting the development of our environmental demonstration house at 560 Red River Road.

“How long a minute is, depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on.”

--Zall's Second Law

Your everyday life is filled with 1 342 decisions from the time you get up in the morning until you go to sleep at night.  Just let that number sink in.  One thousand three hundred forty-two decisions every day!  I bet you’re starting to think about all decisions in your life to see if this number is true.  Well I can tell you that it isn’t true, I just made it up.  Needless to say, our lives are filled with decisions.  While some may be critical, even life-threatening, most are subconscious and mundane,  and we, for the most part, can make these without causing any stress on our lives.

When spring arrives and the snow finally melts it’s both a blessing and curse to our City.  With the sidewalks cleared of snow you begin to see the pile of sand and debris which is a result of winter safety measures.  The sand and sludge is an eyesore and a bit annoying when jogging but nothing compares to the large quantities of garbage that are uncovered by the snow melt.  Walking around our City you’d be hard pressed to go 10 m without finding a piece of garbage.  Sadly, it seems that litter has become an accepted rite of spring—the trash returns along with the robins and geese.  It’s a constant struggle to reduce litter in the City and education and information directed to the public are ways EcoSuperior is trying to improve this.

On April 21st the OLG Casino in Thunder Bay launched their water bottle free initiative.  They celebrated the day by handing out free reusable water bottles to the patrons that day as well they invited EcoSuperior to setup a water taste testing booth.  EcoSuperior’s water taste test challenges participants to taste 3 types of water; straight tap water, Brita filtered tap water and Evian bottled water.  With 89 participants here are the results.

Peer pressure is defined as social pressure by members of one's peer group to take a certain action, adopt certain values, or otherwise conform in order to be accepted (dictionary.com).

Behind The Bulb

Shining A Light On All Their Secrets

Lighting is one of the major uses of our energy and with the cost of energy not only to our wallets but also the environment there has been a strong push to go energy efficient.  The big question is: what is the best kind of light bulb?  I sat down with Incandescent (INC), compact fluorescent (CFL) and light emitting diode (LED) to get their own stories.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

-- Mahatma Gandhi