1. Plastic Bottle Lids: This belongs in the Garbage bin.  

2. Glass: Glass belongs in the Refundables bin on Campus. However, off-campus Glass is meant to go into the Garbage bin. This is because the waste facility at Eco360 (where all of Sackvile’s waste goes to) does not have safety procedures in place to recycle glass. Therefore if you’re walking in the town of Sackville and unknowingly put your glass in the recycling bin, the waste sorters at the facility are at a higher risk of getting cut by the small shards of glass that would come down through the conveyor. However as we know, Glass is a valuable resource that ideally should be recycled at facilties. With this in mind, Facilities at Mt. A introduced the Refundables bin so that they can make money off of some of the recycling collected while also allowing for students to recycle glass on campus. 

3. Plastic bottle caps: These go in the Garbage bin because they could potentially be a type 6 plastic (all type 6 plastics belong in Garbage) and it creates extra work for waste sorters at Eco360 who would, if missorted, have to individually separate the cap from the rest of the bottle one at a time. 

4. Disposable coffee cup lids: These lids are a type 6 plastic and therefore go into the Garbage bin. You can tell if the plastic is a type 6 plastic by checking the number in the recycling triangle sign on the item or by seeing if the piece of plastic would snap in two (very brittle).  

5. Empty Pens: Most pens are made out of a hard plastic and so you might instinctively think it belongs in the Recyclables bin. Used up pens actually belong in the Garbage bin. To help you remember this, here are three rules of thumb to keep in mind. 1) If you don’t see the triangular sign on the item, it is better to just put it in garbage. 2) If an item has multiple materials mixed into it, put it in garbage. 3) If you’re unsure of how to sort something upon taking a moment to think, put it in garbage.

If ever in doubt check out the super detailed, ultimate waste sorting guide here

All this information is a lot to take in but keep in mind that the 5 items listed here are 99% of all the confusing items that people missort. Everything else is pretty straight forward. A couple other tips to keep in mind if you ever get confused about waste sorting on campus: check the waste signs above the bin, and look at the colour of the waste bag to see what bin you're throwing your garbage into (!!!). Occasionally on-campus you’ll see small blue coloured garbage bins with clear plastic bags. At first glance you might think you’re looking at a recycling bin because the bin is blue but if the colour of the waste bag is not blue, then it is not a recycling bin. If the colour of the waste bag is blue, it is recycling, if it is green it is organics, if it is clear it is garbage. The feature photo is an example of what I mean. 

You might be wondering why Mount Allison has a “unique” sorting system. Well, to be honest every town has a “unique” recycling system relative to other places because each town/region has its own set of waste sorting rules. This is because each waste facility across Canada has different levels of government funding, waste sorting technology/processes, and safety standards. Just because a certain product is made out of recyclable material and COULD be recycled, it does not mean it is or can be recycled at the waste facility near you. At Mount Allison there are many students from different countries, provinces and towns thus everyone has a different idea of how to sort waste. I hope this post helped you learn a little bit more about waste sorting at Mount Allison.