Keeping old appliances and scrap metal out of the landfill is something All Saints Greely has been doing on a small scale for several years. We have collected old appliances, taken them to a recycler and given the funds, calculated by the weight, to the church. Last year, we expanded to keeping milk bags out of the landfill too as we began weaving sleeping mats and sit-upons for the unhoused and less fortunate in the Ottawa area.
This fall, we stepped up our game by hosting a two-day e-waste, scrap metal, battery, and milk bag collection event with the assistance of local company Metro Scrap Metal (MSM). It also served as a fundraising event for us as well. MSM provided 3 large rolloff bins for Saturday, Sept. 16 and Sunday, Sept 17 in the parking lot of the Greely Community Centre. From 9 am to 5 pm both days, we invited and welcomed the public to drive in and drop off old electronics, large and small appliances, scrap metal, batteries of all sizes, as well as milk bags. Drop offs included items as small as a cell phone to freezers and fridges, fencing, to car hoods and doors. By the end of the weekend, we had one bin full to overflowing of e-waste, a second larger bin full to overflowing with scrap metal, and a third bin full of a combination of both, plus a large number of batteries of all sizes, and almost 700 milk bags. On Monday, MSM picked up the larger car and lawn tractor type batteries and the three bins and took care of the recycling. In return, they will provide All Saints Greely a cheque when the weight calculations have been determined. The smaller regular sized batteries were delivered to Home Hardware filling two shopping carts and used printer cartridges were returned to Staples. A weekend event which cost us nothing but time, manpower, and muscle was very much appreciated by the community.
In the end it will help fund our outreach initiatives and operating expenses but more importantly will help protect our environment by keeping so many numerous items from going to the curb and into our landfills.
In the January 2023 Crosstalk, we told you about our “making a difference one bag at a time” milk bag weaving initiative on Tuesday evenings which started in conjunction with Earthub. To date, 129 sleeping mats, 152 sit-upons, and 2 mid-sized mats have been distributed to local outreach organizations and initiatives. This equates to approximately 66,500 milk bags kept out of the landfill. With about 1,000 milk bags a week being used and keeping up our supply becoming a challenge we do welcome donations. The outer 3 litre milk bags, clean, dry, and flat if possible but not necessary are greatly appreciated.
Every act of kindness and little bit each of us can do to help protect our environment benefits everyone.
Please share stories of actions in your own family, parish or community, so we can inspire, learn from and encourage one another.
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