Tours of Thunder Bay’s recycling plant are often an eye-opener for most people.
“I think when people come and see how (they recyclables are) actually sorted, where it goes, it’s interesting to them to see what really happens to the product,” said Recool Canada’s vice-president of operations Steve Kozak.
Recool held a tour of its Thunder Bay facility Monday as part of Waste Reduction Week. People saw how the recyclables they leave on their curb on a bi-weekly basis are sorted, baled and packaged.
Kozak said on tours he receives all types of questions and one misconception many people have is that they throw a lot of items in the garbage.
“The only thing that goes in the garbage here is stuff that is non-recyclable,” he said. “Anything that’s picked up that there’s a market for it is recycled at this facility.”
Carl Rose has always been interested in environmental initiatives so he was eager to take the tour.
Rose has wanted to visit the Recool plant because he’s heard the rumours they throw a lot of the recyclables out.
“I wanted to find out for myself how they really do it,” he said.
He was surprised much of the work is done by hand and had assumed most of the work was done by machines.
“It’s good being labour-intensive because it gives people jobs but it must be hard work,” he said. “It’s nice to see how they separate it all and it helps us understand better the reasons for the rules they have when we have to separate it ourselves at home.”
