You can find out more about Turtle Island Recycling using our about us page.

You can contact Turtle Island Recycling by phone, fax or email. Whichever method you choose, you can find contact information on our contact us page.

Technically, almost everything is recyclable but some items are more valuable then others and therefore you have to balance the cost of recycling versus the costs of disposal. Materials that are most valuable to the recycling industry are those that are easily converted into manufacturing inputs or are scarce and/or energy-intensive to find naturally in or on the Earth.

Turtle Island recycles many commodities beyond the basic metals, paper and the standard blue box contents. Working with manufacturers who use recycled inputs and international marketing of our collected material has allowed Turtle Island to recycle many waste streams that are normally land-filled. Contact a Turtle Island representative to inquire about your waste streams - you may be land-filling a valuable commodity that we could recycle for you!

The following are some of the materials that are now commonly recycled by Turtle Island Recycling programs:

• Paper fibre: Includes fine paper (writing and computer paper etc.), corrugated cardboard, boxboard (cereal boxes, toilet paper rolls etc.), kraft paper (paper bags), egg cartons, newspapers, magazines and more.
• Plastics: Includes rigid plastics (#1,2,3,5 & 6) and film plastics (#4). Examples of these are styrofoam packaging pieces, margarine containers, shampoo bottles, plastic bags and film.
• Gable top cartons: Includes milk and juice cartons, Drink boxes
• Metals: Food and beverage containers, aluminum foil and scrap metals.
• Glass: Clear and coloured glass, usually bottles.

Recycling prevents the emissions of many greenhouse gases and water pollutants, saves energy, supplies valuable raw materials to industry, creates jobs, stimulates the development of greener technologies, conserves resources for future generations, and reduces the need for new landfills and combustors. Efficient resource management is the key to smart business practices and will save operating costs when these programs are implemented and followed by employees, tenants and property management.

Recycling creates new products such as aluminium cans, newspapers, cereal boxes, paper towels, egg cartons, carpeting, motor oil, car bumpers, nails, trash bags, glass containers, comic books, and laundry detergent bottles. Steps in the recycling process include collecting the recyclable components of solid waste, separating materials by type, processing them into reusable forms, and purchasing and using the goods made with reprocessed materials.

Turtle Island collects the waste from a variety of homes, offices, institutions and manufacturing facilities and brings all of the material back to our plant on the Port of Authority docklands in Toronto. The processing of this material consists of separating the different types of waste (grades of paper, the mixed beverage containers, types of plastic etc.) and then putting the sorted commodity through a shredder or industrial baler, depending on the method of shipping. The processed material is then shipped to the mill, foundry or end-market buyer who uses the cleaned and sorted material as an input in their

manufacturing processes.

Using recovered material generates less solid waste. Recycling helps to reduce the pollution caused by the extraction and processing of virgin materials. Also, when products are made using recovered rather than virgin materials, less energy is used during manufacturing and fewer pollutants are emitted. For example, 25% less energy is used when making cardboard from recycled cardboard rather then using fibre from wood. Making aluminum is 95% less energy-intensive when using recycled aluminum instead of raw material like bauxite, which mined from the Earth at great environmental and monetary cost. Recycling has other benefits beyond lower disposal fees. For example, recycling steel cans saves water. It takes 223,500 litres of water to make one tonne of steel. When scrap iron is used instead of iron ore to make steel, water consumption is reduced by 50%.

Educating the public about the benefits of recycling and/or providing economic incentives will get more people involved in recycling. Turtle Island makes it easy to incorporate responsible waste management into your workplace through a user-friendly and cost-effective program. We take a co-mingled collection of all your old beverage containers so there is no need to wash or sort your containers we have staff that do the sorting here at our plant.

Turtle Island Recycling offers online training and educational programs that companies can download that will complement any program, new or existing: click here to access our online presentations. For those companies that want to kick-start a program or increase compliance with assistance from Turtle Island industry-trained professionals, we offer a fully-guided instructional "Waste Watchers" program designed to your specific needs. The Waste Workout is a one month program that consists of a thorough evaluation and audit of your facilities; a report which details your current waste disposal practices, volumes and generating points; a document prepared using this data which explains the program and the objectives (intended for distribution among your staff or tenants); signs, stickers, posters and other promotional material to publicize the program; onsite training, events, displays, and contests run by Turtle Island representatives; a final report gauging the success of the program, the reduction in volumes and the increase in diversion from landfill as well as additional 'reminder' notices and communications that management can use in the future to promote responsible waste management practices. Please call us for further information on this program and other 3R's initiatives, legislative compliance or ISO 14001 certification questions that Turtle Island staff can assist you with.

Based on Zero Waste International Alliance (http://www.zwia.org/), Zero Waste means “designing and managing products and processes to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them. Implementing Zero Waste will eliminate all discharges to land, waste or air that may be a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health.”

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) sets standards for environmental construction and property management. According to the Canadian Green Building Council (www.cagbc.org), “LEED Prerequisites and Credits are organized in the five principal LEED® categories: • Sustainable Sites • Water Efficiency • Energy and Atmosphere • Materials and Resources • Indoor Environmental Quality Project ratings are certified by the CaGBC based on the total point score, following an independent review and audits of selected Credits of documentation submitted by a design and construction team. With four possible levels of certification (certified, silver, gold and platinum), LEED® is flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of green building strategies that best fit the constraints and goals of particular projects.”