When the BC Securities Commission contacted Keen On Green Junk Removal and Recycling, they were looking for a full solution that made economical as well as environmental sense. They needed a way to sustainably dispose of over 500 pieces of outdated material.
Keen On Green coordinated the pick-up, transport, disassembling of all the packages, and recycled and disposed of each material appropriately. A sample package was first provided, with which Keen on Green determined the best way to dispose of each material, and provided a reasonable quote which included transportation, labour, and recycling fees. Due to the various components of each package, the solution required some research into how exactly to dispose of each piece in the best way possible.
Each package contained: a cardboard box, three-ring binder, mixed paper contents, DVDs, and plastic dividers. After finding out how each component would be best recycled or disposed of, the Keen On Green team disassembled and separated all 500+ packages and brought each material to the appropriate facilities for recycling or disposal.
The project took approximately 10 hours, with three Keen On Green staff members, and the help of a few recycling and transfer station partners. First, the Keen On Green team picked up the six skids worth of packages from Rebel Communications Group in Richmond, a storage facility for warehousing and fulfillment used by the BC Securities Commission. The packages were then brought back to Keen On Green headquarters to be disassembled and separated by material.
Next, Keen On Green enlisted the help of ACA Metal Recycle in Richmond to properly recycle the 420 kilograms of binders with metal rings attached. The binders were first put through a shredder, then a magnet was used to extract the metal content from the shredded material. The 290 kilograms of cardboard boxes and 1390 kilograms of mixed paper were delivered to Cascades Recovery in Vancouver, while the plastic dividers were brought to Wastech Transfer Station in North Vancouver. DVDs went to South Vancouver Bottle Depot, part of Encorp Pacific Return-It, who accepts electronic products along with beverage and alcohol products. In the end, over 2000 kilograms of material was prevented from going to a landfill.
Wilson Leung of Keen On Green states, “we want to provide the most convenient solution while being as green as possible – and of course be within budget and on time.” Keen On Green would like to thank the BC Securities Commission for the interesting project and all our recycling and disposal partners for working with us to reduce the overall amount of waste!