When bottle depots receive recyclable containers, they process the containers and recycle them for reuse. There are many different benefits that recycling has, including:

• Reduces carbon emissions
• Saves money
• Brings people together
• Conserves our natural resources
• Protects our ecosystems
• Protects our wildlife
• Educates people about the importance of protecting the environment

Before You Donate to a Bottle Depot

Go through all the recyclables in your homes to find out what recyclable containers you have that you can donate. Most people don’t know that they can donate bottles to bottle depots and get their money back. You might be surprised by what a bottle depot takes!

Here’s What You Should Know About Recyclable Containers in Alberta.

In Alberta, beverage containers holding 1L or less allow a 10 cent deposit per container, while beverage containers that hold over 1L equal a 25 cent deposit.

The revenue recycling fee for recyclable containers in Alberta supports the costs of collection, transportation, handling, and processing of recyclable containers. Fees differ from container to container because the price and cost to process each container vary based on the material type.

Recyclable containers maintain and preserve a clean environment by preventing pollution. In addition, when we return recyclable containers, we save energy and reduce the demand for raw materials. 

What Do Recyclable Containers Turn Into?

Recycling beverage containers turns them into fibreglass, clothing, carpeting, and more. Here are just a few of the materials that recyclable containers can turn into.

Aluminum Cans

When you recycle aluminum cans, they go through a 60-day process which turns them into brand new aluminum cans.

Clear Plastic Containers

Clear PET (polyethylene terephthalate) containers turn into pellets or flakes, which manufacturers use to create new clothing or food-grade beverage containers.

Coloured Plastic Containers

Coloured plastic containers turn into pellets or flakes to create non-food plastic products.

Glass Containers

In Alberta, recycling facilities crush glass containers into tiny little glass beads. Next, machines spin these glass beads into skinny strings, which then turn into fibreglass insulation. 

In other areas around the world, facilities add glass to street painting, which helps make it much more reflective.

Tetra Brik Containers

Tetra Brik containers are a part of the Polycoat group.  Paper, aluminum, and plastic make up these types of containers. When separating the three different types of material, each container must go through a hydro-pulping process.

Gable Top Cartons

Recycling facilities separate Gable Top cartons into two different material types: paper and plastic. When recycling these products, the container goes through a hydro-pulping process, turning 90% of the paper into various products, including toilet paper, writing paper, and more. 

Bi-Metal Beverage Containers

Bi-Metal beverage containers turn into car parts, grinding rods for mining, construction rebar, and more.

1. It Protects Ecosystems and Wildlife

When we recycle, we lessen disruption to the natural world. When we cut down fewer trees and forests, we are preventing harm to animals. By reducing disruption and damage to the natural world, we help preserve ecosystems and wildlife. 

2. Conserves Our Natural Resources

Some of the world’s natural resources are in short supply, and when we recycle, we help conserve these natural resources.

When we recycle paper, we save forests and trees. When we recycle plastic, it takes up a lot of solid waste and can take centuries to break down. In addition to this, most plastic comes from fossil fuel hydrocarbons.

Recycling metals reduces the need to extract new metal ore while recycling glass reduces our need for certain raw materials like sand.

3. Recycling Helps Saves Energy

Making products from recycled materials requires less energy than making them from new, raw materials. It takes much less energy to make products out of recycled materials than from raw materials. For example, recycling one glass bottle saves enough power to light a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. 

4. Reduces the Need For New Raw Materials

When we recycle, it reduces our need to harvest raw materials. Our increasing demand for these raw materials also displaces people who live near forests or around river systems. When we recycle, we reduce the possibility of damaging someone else’s land or community.

5. Reduces Carbon Emissions

Recycling takes up less energy, which reduces our carbon footprint and emissions. Reducing our carbon footprint helps minimize methane-release waste from landfill sites, which contributes to climate change.

6. Recycling Saves Money

Recycling waste is much cheaper than regular waste collection and disposal. The more we recycle, the more money we can save. Deposit returns can also help add financial incentives to recycle.

Recycling can help protect the environment while conserving natural resources. It is critical to recycle and minimize the amount of waste we are putting into the atmosphere. Doing so can help save energy, reduce landfill waste, and protect our environment.

7. It Can Bring People Together

Recycling brings communities together and helps people raise money for schools, colleges, hospitals, and more. These recycling drives make towns and cities happier and cleaner.

8. Educates People About the Importance of Protecting the Environment

When communities come together to raise awareness about recycling, it teaches people about the importance of protecting the environment and how to do so. Educating people about protecting the environment can help equip future generations with the knowledge and understanding they need to reduce pollution.

9. Recycling Can Creates Jobs

Recycling creates new jobs every year. Jobs in recycling include sorters, drivers, mechanics, technicians, and more. 

10. Reduces Incineration

When we recycle, we reprocess materials to make new products, reducing the amount of waste sent for incineration.

In Alberta, bottle depots are an essential service. Most of them remain open during the pandemic, although some may have reduced hours. Click here to find an open bottle depot near you. Be sure to call your local depot first to ensure that the hours of operation listed on the website are up to date.

Bottle drives are a method of fundraising used by people of all ages. The premise of a bottle drive is to raise money from bottle returns. They are easy to plan and execute. Here are some tips.

Start by finding out how much bottles and other recyclables are worth in your area. Once you find out how much bottles are worth, you can start planning the drive. Hand out flyers to your friends, neighbours, and family. Spread the word on social media about the bottle drive and the cause you are raising money for.

Choose a cause that is close to your heart. It can be anything you desire. Pick a location where you can hold the drive. It can be in a school gym, your driveway, a parking lot, or any other space.

If you do not have a huge budget, you can also opt to pick up bottles from people. All you have to do is give your friends and neighbours a date so that they have time to collect their bottles, and then you can go pick them up.

When you have collected all your bottles, be sure to separate the bottles and cans. Once you’ve done this, you can transport the bottles to the depot.

Tips for a Successful Bottle Drive With Country Hills Bottle Depot Calgary

There are a few helpful tips that can help your bottle drive become a success. Here are a few of them.

Additional tips can be found here!

1. Get Organized

Form a group of people who are willing to help with the bottle drive. Have one person in charge of advertising and promoting the drive, one person in charge of volunteer recruitment, another person in charge of sorting, etc. Doing so will help ensure that the entire process runs smoothly.

2. Get the Word Out

Start advertising your bottle drive as early as possible. You can do this by handing out flyers, promoting on social media, and by word of mouth. Remind people about the bottle drive two weeks in advance and again a few days before the event. You can also advertise on community websites and post on community boards.

3. Plan it Out

Before the event, make sure that you plan the outline of the day. It would help if you also created a specific timeline of events. Make the event fun, and be sure to remind people why you are raising the money. Don’t forget to thank people for coming out and supporting you.

When you organize recycling, it helps ensure that different materials do not end up in the same mix. 

By sorting out our recycling, items like non-deposit containers are sorted from the trash and unloaded in another area at the facility.

Materials like paper and cardboard go to remanufacturers while the metal, plastic, and cartons go through their own shipment process.

Single-Stream Recycling

Most communities sort and collect cardboard and paper in the same collection container as plastic and metal packaging and coffee cups. The collection truck empties these items at the sorting facility.

These trucks typically collect on-deposit glass containers and put them in a separate compartment to go to another area at the sorting facility. This is the single-stream recycling process.

During the single-stream recycling process, everything excluding glass is processed and baled for shipment to material remanufacturers. 

Many communities collect cardboard and paper in the same collection container as plastic and metal packaging. These items go to the same place at the sorting facility.

1. In an average year, North Americans throw out enough trash that can circle the earth 24 times.

Did you know that millions of people around North America do not correctly recycle their trash? Millions upon millions of recyclable items are thrown in the trash every day. It is estimated that Americans alone throw out almost 100 million steel and tin cans every day.

17 trees are saved every year by recycling one ton of paper. 

Are you aware of the vital role that trees play in the earth’s health? One single tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants found in the air every year. 

By recycling, you can save trees and, in turn, help significantly reduce pollutants in the air. 

2. By recycling aluminum cans, you can save 95% of the energy that is used to make new ones.

By recycling just one single aluminum can, you can save enough energy that can power a 100-watt light bulb for a total of 20 hours. 

Due to modern advanced technology, today’s recycling facilities can process over 3500 pounds of aluminum per hour. This aluminum can then be reused in other types of products.

3. Over 5 billion styrofoam cups are thrown into the trash every year.

Can you guess how long it takes styrofoam to decompose in a landfill?

500 years.

By simply switching to mugs or reusable cups, you can save all of that time and help support a healthier planet. Mugs or reusable cups can be reused for years and years on end.

4. Millions of plastic straws are thrown away every single day.

Plastic straws tend to contaminate recycling waste streams. Even though plastic straws are made from recyclable plastic, most recycling machines can’t recycle them because they’re too small and light, so they are often disposed of as garbage through the recycling process.

Plastic straws cannot be recycled because of the chemicals they are made of. Because of this, they cannot be broken down and end up in waterways, causing large amounts of unnecessary plastic pollution.

6. Every year, over 10 million tons of glass jars and bottles are thrown into landfills.

Glass is 100% recyclable, but many people throw it in the trash because they do not have available curbside recycling for glass. This is why it is recommended to use glass containers.

The energy that is saved from recycling glass can reduce air pollution by 20%. It can also cause 50% less water pollution. In addition to this, modern glass bottles take over 4000 years to decompose.

7. There are more plastic pieces in the ocean than there are stars in the entire galaxy.

Did you know that there are 51 trillion microplastic particles found in the sea?

Plastic does not biodegrade when it reaches the ocean, while other materials like paper do. Plastic only breaks down into even smaller pieces of plastic. These small pieces of plastic are called microplastics. 

Not only do these microplastics make their way into the ocean, but they also get into our bodies through our food and groundwater.

8. Every ear, 1 trillion plastic bags are used around the world.

Despite the fact that plastic bags can be recycled in separate waste streams, most people throw them into the trash. These plastic bags meanwhile sit in landfills around the world.

This is why it is becoming more and more important to use reusable bags or reuse plastic bags and recycle them when they are no longer usable. This will significantly reduce the amount of plastic bags that sit in landfills.

9. 46 gallons of oil are saved by recycling one ton of cardboard.

Online shopping has increased tremendously, particularly since the start of the pandemic. Every single day, millions of products are being delivered in cardboard boxes. 

Recycling cardboard uses significantly less energy than creating new cardboard. In fact, recycling cardboard only takes 7% of the energy needed to produce cardboard out of new materials.

10. Americans use more than 80,000,000,000 aluminum cans every single year. 

Most of these cans end up in landfills. Every month, Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the commercial air fleet. When an aluminum beverage can is recycled, it can return to grocery store shelves as new cans just 90 days after collection.