Recycling IS a Worthwhile Effort, Contrary to the Globe and Mail

We were initially excited that the Globe and Mail featured us in an article on recycling at the office. We thought the article would discuss how simple it really is to have an environmentally-friendly office and the benefits of it, but were very disappointed to find that they were writing about the difficulty of it all. It was in the paper yesterday, here is the link.

For the record, we have fun implementing our recycling program. It does take some extra effort, but the benefits (both environmental and in team spirit) far outweigh any challenges, and its very worthwhile to start and maintain. The Globe and Mail should have been a little more considerate about their intentions with the story, and more accurate with our facts and feelings towards recycling.

Composting Update

The composting system has been up and running for a month now. It was easy to start, we collect all the items for it in a small bucket and then open the bin once a day. Every 2-3cm we put in a handful of the Bokashi mix and then leave it alone to ferment. We still don’t know how successful this batch was though. It started to grow mold and we’re not sure if it was supposed to. We have buried the first bucket and are on to our second one, I’ll keep you updated, but if anyone has any tips for us please let us know because we’re all first timers!

Composting System

We have decided to start an office composting system. We only have 13 employees so we aren’t generating a large amount of waste, but we still think we should try and cut down. Our first idea was to have a company come in and pick up our compostable materials, but after some searching we found that Vancouver doesn’t currently have this system in place. Smithrite offers this, but not for offices as small as ours. We then thought about setting up a worm bin, but from our research we think that this method can be smelly and there are a lot of materials that have to be kept out.

Then we found the “Bokashi Bucket”. It was appealing to us because it claims to have no smell, no worms, recycles all types of waste other than liquids and is small enough for in the office kitchen. The bucket and supplies lasts about 2 months and costs only $45. We have it in the office now and I will keep you posted on our progress, I’ll also put a link here to the website for the step by step instructions and pictures of it.

www.greatday.ca