http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/North/1305554399/ID=1918337155
For those (all of nunavut, unless you have satellite internet and it happens to be running well) who can’t watch this video online without having to watch a choppy piece of **%% that takes 6 times as long to watch as it should, here’s the text:
As spring time arrives in nunavut, mud and gravel emerge. But those aren’t the only things the melting snow reveals, and much of the junk is recyclable.
Roseanne Durazio (sp?) moved to Iqaluit last year. Though the city doesn’t have a recycling program anymore, she couldn’t quite kick the habit:
“the soda cans and the plastic and the tuna cans and the soup cans; I throw it all in an action packer and I just put that on the plane down south with me.”
Giving a new meaning to recycling taking flight.
“I just don’t feel right putting all this cardboard and recyclable materials in the garbage. It took us a while, but I figured out a place in town to compost, too; so that reduces our garbage by a lot.”
And Durazio says she’s not the only one taking recycling south, or taking their own initiative. Arctic co-ops limited is beginning its own recycling program in communities. Northwestel started a phone book recycling program in Iqaluit schools this month.
“…I really hope that Iqaluit can find a way to keep recycling; I think it will really help divert things from the landfill”
(overdub of people saying ‘there’s 250 cans’ while pulling them out of a truck.)
The government of nunavut had a recycling program going for a while, but cut it off last December.
“It was a matter of cost decrease in our recycling program and our department in particular, you know, couldn’t afford to continue it.” Badalloo says it’s very expensive to recycle in the North, because of how much it costs to store it and move it south; but he says the government is working on a strategy.
“…and one of the topics on the waste management strategy is recycling, so that will fall into the bigger picture and the bigger plans for the department-not for the department – for the government of Nunavut.”
Until then, people like Durazio will continue to take recyclables south by the suitcase. Jessie Fraser CBC news, Iqaluit.
I brought my recycling south from IQ when I lived there from 2006 to 2008 – I had many work trips south that there wasn’t too much of a collection. Some of my IQ friends continued the same tradition after I left and bring me their recycling to put in my blue box on their visits. I always wondered what passerbys thought of the many empty liquor bottles sitting in my blue box on collection day after their visits. Especially as I am a non-drinker
I had one trip where the airline LOST my tracker pack full of recycling material. It also had a frozen char. I never did get that piece of luggage back.
i knew there were other ‘crazies’ out there! lol about the booze in your recycling box… off the wagon AGAIN, eh? think of the gossip!