A new recycling model aims to make manufacturers responsible for processing products at end of life, rather than taxpayers. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) has already been put into legislation in five out of 10 provinces (Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba), and has been used in Europe for over 30 years. But, Nova Scotia […]
Recycling
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Halifax’s apartment buildings are a trash-sorting dumpster fire, residents say
L iving in an apartment building can have its benefits. There’s security, there are facilities and the buildings provide services for tenants. For every residential building with more than six units in HRM, one of those services is garbage collection. “Each apartment building is required to have five bins in the waste room in the […]
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Haligonians are composting almost twice as much as they are recycling
A ccording to HRM, residents disposed of an average of 380 kg of waste in 2017-18. That’s like 380 bags of flour per person. This includes everything from clear bag garbage to recycling and compost. The reported national average for Canadians is almost double that number, at just over 700 kg, according to Statistics Canada. […]
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How to recycle and compost properly in HRM
If you’re new to town, you may notice that Nova Scotia recycles and composts more than some other provinces. A 2012 study by the Conference Board of Canada actually ranked Nova Scotia first among provinces for waste generated per capita, at 386 kg per year. What goes where? If you download the Halifax Recycles app […]
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It is easy being green
It’s not news that our planet is in trouble, but it can be hard to know what to do about it. This Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day—meaning it’s the perfect time to stop wondering what the best thing you can do is and just decide to do SOMETHING to help our overheating home. Here […]
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Province says HRM can dump plastics in Nova Scotian landfill
The province is letting Halifax ship its garbage mountain of trash bags to another Nova Scotia dump. The department of environment announced the temporary exemption in provincial recycling law on Friday. The change lasts for six months and only applies to the Halifax Regional Municipality’s dumping of plastic shopping bags and the plastic wrap around […]
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Curb-side enthusiasm: a guide to sorting your garbage
FIRST THINGS FIRSTThe city has a kick-ass app for garbage collection that will send you notifications reminding you when to put yours out, and what exactly you should be kicking to the curb. It’s a game-changer, so download it now and become a trash wizard. RECYCLINGYour blue bag is for plastic, glass, paper and aluminium […]
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Nova Scotia’s recycling efforts plateaued 15 years ago
In a recent self-assessed report card, the Otter Lake Community Monitoring Committee released the results of a December waste audit that found 52 percent of residential waste and 71 percent of business waste was reusable, recyclable or compostable material. “It was a surprise to us that the numbers were that high,” says Ken Donnelly, a […]
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Crushing it: the journey of a can

 
It’s Sunday, the evening before collection day in south end Halifax. Outside the houses on Edward Street, tidy mounds of rubbish decorate the curb: plastic bags of recycling, trash and what appear to be loose remnants of spring cleaning. And there are, of course, plenty of empty beer cans—evidence of a boozy weekend. These […]
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Halifax council stays on green course
Halifax council Tuesday stood firm on its environmental record, refusing to weaken the pesticide bylaw and extending the recycling program. One of the first in Canada, the pesticide bylaw was adopted in the late 1990s. It bans pesticides generally, except for a prescribed list of allowable eco-friendly applications, and except by permit. But while admirable, […]
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Garbage limit bagged
Saying they were responding to citizen uproar over proposed changes to garbage policy, Halifax councillors Tuesday voted not to hear more citizen uproar, cancelled a public hearing scheduled for that evening and instead put the entire issue off for two years. At issue were proposed bylaw changes that would tighten the garbage bag limit from […]
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Wasting away
Canadians waste about 40 percent of the food that enters our homes. The United States chucks nearly half its food away, $100 billion worth a year. Half of that is at home. UK consumers waste about a third of their food. Add in UK grocery store, restaurant, farm and fisher waste and it’s 70 percent. […]