Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products. It can benefit your community, the economy, and the environment.

The installation’s drop-off Recycling Center is located at the Community Center. Cardboard, aluminum, scrap metal, paper, plastic/single stream, and glass are collected at the Recycling Center. The material is transported by Six Nations off-site to Green For Life for sorting and recycling.

Truck unloading materials for sorting.

Materials prior to sorting.

Sorting conveyor.

The company that is responsible for both our trash and recyclables uses the same truck to deliver recyclables off-site to the sorting facility. This means the same truck that picks up trash also picks up recyclables and brings them to a different location than the landfill.

Aluminum cans, CLEAN cardboard (no pizza boxes), plastic bottles

No, composting of food waste attracts bears and other animals so we do not compost food waste at the Academy.

Pizza boxes often have residue which makes the cardboard unusable as a source material to make recycled cardboard. Plastic trash bags clog up the sorting machine and prevent valuable materials from being sorted. We ask that no pizza boxes or trash bags are included in recycling at the Academy.

We would recommend simply leaving aluminum cans “as is”. Similarly to the previous answer, there are problems with crushed aluminum cans hampering the sorting process.

You do not have to keep the lid on your bottle when recycling it.

We need a clean stream of plastic bottles at the Community Center recycling facility to use in a 3D printer which is going to be installed at the FERL.

FALSE.

Recyclables with the most significant impact are aluminum cans, clean cardboard, plastic and glass bottles. Contaminants such as food waste, banana peels, plastic/trash bags, and food-stained items like pizza boxes are not recyclable. They inhibit recycling when the bins are collected and sorted or make the materials unusable. Such materials waste hauling space and fuel, jam up machinery, contaminate valuable materials, and pose hazards to workers. At the Academy, our CLEAN cardboard must be kept separate from other recyclables, and we insist on no plastics (except at the Community Center’s recycling hub) and no food waste. Those items make that whole batch of recyclables worthless, unfortunately.

FALSE.

Research shows that convenience and commitment are required for maximum recycling. It is best to make recycling a collaborative effort where everyone participates, making it as convenient and easy as possible to place the correct recyclables in the bin.

FALSE.

Containers should be relatively clean but do not need to be completely free of residue. While all bottles, cans and containers should be clean, dry and free of most food waste before you place them in your recycling container, they don’t need to be spotless. The goal is to make sure they are clean enough to avoid contaminating other materials, like paper or your unlined kitchen recycling bin.

FALSE.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, recycling aluminum cans saves 95% of the energy needed to make new ones from raw materials. Recycling steel and tin cans saves 60 to 74%, recycling paper saves about 60%, and recycling plastic and glass saves about one-third of the energy compared with making those products from virgin materials. The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will operate a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.

FALSE.

Twenty-five percent of the material collected is not recycled at the endpoint. Almost all of this is due to contamination with material that is not recyclable (See Myth number 1). The market for recyclables is very competitive which means there are consistently buyers investing in recyclables to create new products. The amount that is going to the landfill is insignificant.