The City of Calgary offers recycling, but in a limited capacity. Our program only takes a small amount of materials, and requires that people drive to depot stations to drop those items off. I’ve also seen materials that could not be recycled left piles around the recycling bins. I think that Calgary is the last major city in Canada to offer a curb-side recycling program, which is just getting under way this year.

Alternatively, smaller towns like Airdrie and Canmore collect the same materials as Calgary, plus they also accept plastics. Vancouver offers a similar program. I’ve heard that it’s difficult to sell the collected used plastic locally, and that these materials are typically shipped overseas. Recycling is a great idea, but I’m concerned with the amount of energy that goes into this process, especially if we ship our recyclables far away for processing.

I’m not sure what the solution is, but perhaps following the classic “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” adage could help. Reducing consumption and encouraging reuse in our free market throw-away economy is not really an option seen by most companies I’m sure, yet a compromise will have to be reached if we are to avoid serious environmental consequences.