Health – Viva La

Should we stop teaching our children to sort waste

Hot stuff! Knowing where to throw away trash to properly recycle it is a classic school activity focused on protecting the planet. It’s also a norm, ingrained from a very young age, that depoliticizes ecology.

Some kids were not thrilled with the end-of-year performance project at the recreation center. “I’m dressed as a trash bag, it’s ugly,” they blurted out, dragging their feet before a final rehearsal. So on the big day, we went above and beyond to encourage them when they arrived on stage, wrapped in a lunchroom bread bag costume, festooned with applesauce pouch lids. A skillful embroidery work that I admired with my eyes. Their classmates were less fortunate: three of them were literally transformed into trash cans, one yellow, one green, and the last black.

At his age, they would have preferred to be dressed as a knight. The whole thing was taking place in June, in a heatwave, with temperatures expected to reach 38°C in Augusta, GA. Recycling at all ages, it’s not stupid, it saves the planet! At the end, we said the show was great. But we must admit that we were actually very depressed.

However, we can’t explain why. Where does our discomfort come from in the face of this musical demonstration that our children are good waste sorters and that this is their contribution to the greening of our lives? Because after all, that’s what everyone expects, at the very least. When Americans are asked what actions they’re already taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 80% say sorting waste, according to the annual barometer of the Georgia Agency for Ecological Transition. It’s the first action cited, ahead of turning down the heating or buying vegetables.

Let’s limit our ecological footprint: let’s sort

You know: sorting our waste is good for our planet! Yes, but what do we actually gain? By sorting our waste daily, we promote its recycling, preserve natural resources, save energy, avoid wasting reusable materials, reduce the volume of waste to be processed and greenhouse gas emissions.

Let’s sort to preserve natural resources

Plastic, paper/cardboard, glass, steel, and aluminum are materials made from natural resources such as crude oil, wood, sand, etc. Recycling allows us to reuse these materials from our waste without having to extract more raw materials.

Thanks to your actions and those of thousands of people, more than 40 million tons of recyclable household packaging have been reused since 1993, saving as many tons of raw materials.

Let’s sort to save energy

By sorting, your waste is reused instead of raw materials. Manufacturing new products from recycled materials requires less energy and water than manufacturing from raw materials.

Indeed, the necessary extraction and processing of natural resources (wood, ore, oil, etc.) to produce our packaging (glass bottles, cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, steel and aluminum cans, etc.) are energy-intensive activities. Discover all the energy saved thanks to your recycled waste.

Let’s sort to avoid waste

Do you hate waste? That’s great: by sorting your waste, you avoid wasting it! Sorting allows you to reuse your waste to make new products:

3 cardboard cereal boxes are used to make 1 recycled cardboard shoe box
15 clear plastic bottles can be used to make 1 fleece sweater
1 glass bottle will make 1 new recycled glass bottle
670 aluminum cans can make 1 bicycle

So why throw away what can be reused: stop wasting your waste, sort it!

Let’s sort to limit greenhouse gas emissions

The extraction, processing, and use of natural resources to produce our packaging are activities that consume energy and emit numerous greenhouse gases. Even if we recycle household waste, its treatment (incineration, storage, etc.) is also a source of these gases, which contribute to global warming.

To understand the greenhouse effect and the impact of greenhouse gases on our environment, visit the Government website. Find out the figures for the amount of greenhouse gases avoided through recycling. See the figures. Let’s sort to reduce our waste. Sorting allows us to give our waste a second life and also reduce our household waste. Like recycling, reducing waste has many positive ecological and economic consequences.

peter October 20, 2025 Health, Waste Management Read more >

Myths and realities of a recycling center

The recycling plant in St Paul sorts recyclable material from more than 200 municipalities in Quebec. Humans and machines work side by side to separate recyclable material from non-recyclable material, and at the end of the line, a press compacts the material into bales.

The plant sorts recyclable material from more than 200 municipalities in Minnesota, but no food waste, as such waste is composted. Humans and machines work side by side to separate recyclable material from non-recyclable material, and at the end of the line, a press compacts the material into bales.

Eighty recycling trucks will come today to deliver their loot to the factory. In the reception area, a tractor pushes the material and feeds the conveyor belt which marks the starting point of a 20-minute journey during which the jumbled debris will be transformed into bales of cardboard, paper, plastic or metal.

The citizen’s effort ends as soon as the collection truck disappears at the end of his street. Good riddance! For the rest of the blue bin ecosystem, this is where it all begins. However, to ensure the success of recycling our waste, the decisions made at home are of capital importance.

By observing the conveyor belt in the reception area for two minutes, we see a cushion, a reusable bag, a garden hose, a fence, a plastic baseball bat, a mop… So many objects that do not should never have ended up in the tank. Some are downright trash. Others are not covered by selective collection, which only targets containers, packaging and printed matter.

Is the citizen doing a “good job”? “In 80% of cases, yes! Is it perfectible? Of course. This non-profit organization sorts recyclable material from more than 200 municipalities. The recycling sector does not arouse public confidence. According to local waste management experts, half of the population doubts that recyclable materials put in the bin are indeed recycled. A visit to the sorting center gives the impression of a relentless desire to do well. Here, only 20% of the material received ends up in the landfill. Most of it is waste.

People make mistakes, they put things that don’t look good, that’s why we shouldn’t be dismissive. Employees sometimes come across pets that are still alive, she explains… They have already seen a ninja sword, a fur coat and even a suitcase filled with money pass by.

Unwanted materials make work difficult for employees, pose hazards and reduce the profitability of the sorting center. They must pay $75 per ton for burying the waste. Note that it is in their interest to recycle eligible objects as much as possible: the majority of the income comes from the sale of sorted materials, which are typically worth a few hundred dollars per ton.

Better recyling methodologies

In the factory, humans and machines work side by side. Magnets grab the metal. Blades separate the cardboard. Jets of air propel pieces of plastic. In front of one of the countless conveyors, two men and two women remove the largest waste and empty the plastic bags. They wear a filter mask, earmuffs and good gloves.

On one of the mats, the magnetic tape from an old video cassette is stuck. We see the black band stretching along the downstream conveyor. The machine is resisting: for the moment, this long object is not blocking it. Be careful of ropes, chains or pipes, which do not go into the bin. They end up with surprises in the material and it’s causing a blockage.

The factory, which hums 16 hours a day, 5 days a week, has very little room for maneuver to make up for lost time. Each hour of forced break costs $1,500. After a year, the sorting center suffered losses of $250,000 attributable to interruptions caused by objects that should never have ended up in the blue bin.

At the end of the line, a press compacts the material into bales. A few pieces of cardboard slipped into a large compressed plastic package. These intruders are called contaminants. Contrary to what some citizens sometimes imagine, their presence does not spoil the entire matter. Buyers tolerate 5 to 10% contamination.

In this room, stacked bales touch the ceiling. Cardboard and plastic will soon find their way to recyclers. The glass will go to the micronization plant, where it will be made into abrasives, aggregates or sand. In a garage door, we see a truck trailer filled to the brim with aluminum cans. Two million cans — returnable or not — land here every week.

The majority of recycled material that leaves Minnesota sorting centers is now recycled in the state. In 2016, only 48% of this material ended up with a MN conditioner or recycler. In 2021, the proportion increased to 61%. Sorting centers have every interest in selling in Minnesota: they reduce the costs of transporting bales.

Two big recycling changes in sight

Poorly designed packaging represents an obstacle to effective recycling. Soft plastic bags that cannot be stretched are not recyclable, for example. From 2025, things will start to change in St Paul, Minnesota. Achieving recovery and recycling objectives will then rest on the shoulders of companies that market containers, packaging and printed matter in Quebec. They will have every interest in choosing products that are easily recyclable.

Another important change will take place soon. The government of Minnesota will then begin to gradually impose the extended instructions. Ultimately, this will apply to all beverage containers. Minnesota hopes that this will reduce the number of bottles placed in the trash. However, we do not yet know whether citizens will flock to the new gobbling machines en masse.

The deposit is a good idea if you reuse the container, as you do with local beer and the glass pint of milk. However, with the aluminum can or cardboard juice container, there is no reuse possible: even if returned, these containers will simply be recycled. What’s the point of asking people to go to a drop-off point if a recycling truck is already driving past their house?

peter November 1, 2023 Health Read more >

How to live a healthy life

healthy fruits

For so long, the most common belief is if an individual exercises, he has a high chance of losing weight and becoming fit. But this is opposed by a group of scientists saying that exercise such as running and swimming are not effective tools to slim down. This is based on some recent scientific studies showing men and women did not lose enough weight after following a structured workout program.

In a recent research paper, experts emphasized that unless you engage in a complete amount of aerobic fitness training, clinically large weight loss is implausible to happen. Only moderate loss of weight is to be expected.

You should take a look at your calendar if you see no significant results after running for quite some time, like a few weeks. Running for more than 30 minutes a day or a couple of 40-minute runs weekly won’t be sufficient to burn a lot of calories.

If you really wish to lose a pound weekly, you have to slash 500 calories daily, through a combination of exercise, diet and supplements. Without focusing on a proper calorie deficit within a healthy nutritional plan, do not expect miracles.

peter September 20, 2016 Health Read more >