REAPS REPORT

REAPS News Web Pick Book of the Month Waste Reduction Challenge Recycle Toy Drive Waste Reduction Week

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Local News

Funding Fish & Insects Mini Maker Faire Trash Report Paris Agreement Talk

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Around BC

2.6 Mil Coffee Cups Weekly BC Newspaper Recycling NDP Examine Mt. Polley

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Around Canada

Protection Lancaster Sound GM Salmon National Strategy Light Bulbs

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Around the World

China’s Ban on Waste $500 Mil Trees Provide in Service

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Compost Word Search

7

Back Page

Dumpy’s Tip of the Month Recycle Craft Corner Membership Application

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Hotline 250-561-7327 www.reaps.org Email newsletter@reaps.org

Recycl ing & Environmental Ac tion & Planning Society

COMING EVENTS

SEPTEMBER

3 - 4 Potato Festival Huble Homestead

4 Labour Day

9 - 10 Active Living Mkt Pine Centre

17 Terry Fox Run

30 Mini Maker Faire @ Two Rivers

OCTOBER

7 Junk in the Trunk

16 - 20 REAPS School Dist. 57 WRC

NOVEMBER

18 REAPS Recycle Toy Drive

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

SEPTEMBER 2017

PAGE 2 REAPS REPORT HOTLINE 250 -561 -7327

REAPS NEWS Web Pick of the Month Book of the Month

https://www.treehugger.com/

Treehugger is a popular destination for up-to-date green news, with a focus on technology, design and green liv-ing. The stated goal of the site is to “drive sustainability mainstream,” and its easy-to-read content and catchy titles can get even the average Joe interested in the envi-

ronment.

The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time

by Elizabeth Rogers, Thomas M. Kostigen

With wit and authority, authors Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen

provide hundreds of solutions for all areas of your life, pinpointing the

smallest changes that have the biggest impact on the health of our pre-

cious planet.

Waste Reduction Challenge

R.E.A.P.S School District 57 'Waste Reduction Challenge'. The challenge is open to all schools within the Regional District of Fraser Fort George and happens during Waste Reduction Week, October 16 - 20. Our goal is to raise awareness of the environmental and economic problems associated with waste. By reducing waste, we conserve precious resources, mini-mize pollution and save money. The challenge is to encourage everyone to reduce, reuse, re-cycle, compost, and conserve water and ener-gy.

The R.E.A.P.S School District 57 'Waste Re-duction Challenge' is meant to encourage and show students and teachers how they can re-duce their environmental footprint and help make learning about classroom garbage fun! The class with the least amount of classroom garbage during Waste Reduction Week will receive $200.00!

Email events@reaps.org to receive your regis-tration package and sign up.

Waste Reduction Week—October 16 –22, 2017

The time is coming, the time to reduce the waste! Throughout BC residents are encouraged to participate in the 3Rs that will lower the amount of waste that they produce. We at REAPS want to help you make this waste reduction week a success

with a few helpful suggestions to get you started:

1. Learn what you can recycle in your area and where you you can take it. . Check out our Waste Reduction Direc-

tory at www.reaps.org

2. Reduce packaging. When you are considering purchas-ing an item take into account the packaging. If there is a lot of packaging material which can not recycled look for

an alternative.

3. Consider not buy items that are only single serving or that are going to break quickly. By spending a few dol-lars more you will have products that will last longer and

will not just end up in the landfill after a day.

4. Donate your items to thrift shops. Just because you can no longer use something does not mean that it has no

value or use to someone else.

5. Have a garage sale or join us at the Junk in the Trunk

Sale on October 7th, a large community garage sale. RECYCLE TOY DRIVE

Mark your calendars and start your pre-Christmas declutter. REAPS Annual Recycle Toy Drive collects quality used toys for distribution by various children advocacy agencies in Prince George during the holiday

season.

Saturday, November 18th

10 a.m.—2 p.m. @ REAPS 1950 Gorse Street

PAGE 3 HOTLINE 250 -561 -7327 REAPS REPORT

LOCAL NEWS

Where does the Paris Agreement get us? Are we still in a climate emergency?"

Inspiring Women Among Us and NRESi is pleased to pre-sent the Honorable Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada in a talk entitled: Where does the Paris Agreement get us? Are we still in a climate emergency?"

We are two years out from the successful negotiations at COP21 in Paris. Justin Trudeau claims that Canada is now a climate leader. Are we? And Donald Trump claims the USA has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement. Has it?

What is the best way for citizen activists to engage to en-sure Paris targets are met.

The talk is October 13, 3:30 to 4:30 at UNBC, room 8-168. All are welcome.

The annual operations report of the Foothills Regional Landfill has been produced by the Regional District of Fraser Fort George and you may be startled at just how much material heads to that facility.

Over the past year, just over 98 thousand tonnes of materials crossed the scales at the landfill.

Of that amount almost, 73 thousand tonnes of solid waste was buried at the landfill, close to 34 thousand tonnes from residential users. Slightly over 26 thou-sand tonnes were diverted to recycling streams or composted.

The report, which is to be submitted to the Ministry of the Environ-ment, says the Foothills Land-fill has at least 10 more years of use of Cell 1 for waste dis-posal.

RDFFG Annual Trash Report

Funding Expands on Changing Environments of Fish and Insects

Dr. Dezene Huber, Dr. Mark Shrimpton and Dr. Brent Murray from UNBC’s Ecosystem Science and Management department were awarded $164,000 from the Canada Foundation for Inno-vation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF). It’s among a Government of Canada investment of more than $52 million in 220

new infrastructure projects at 51 universities.

The infrastructure will allow them to conduct experiments in the field in central and North-ern B.C. as well as in a series of aquaria housed in the basement of UNBC’s Re-

search Laboratory building.

The research will help them develop innova-tive protocols to assess biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems, in-cluding a number of studies to monitor rare species through the

analysis of environmental DNA obtained by water samples.

Highly sensitive and species specific sampling and detection techniques will be developed for species such as Arctic grayling, coastal-tailed frogs, western-painted turtles and Great Basin

spadefoot toads.

Development of tools for monitoring population distribution and abun-dance will aid in the conservation and

management of threatened species.

Funding will support lab and field equipment including pumps, micro-centrifuges and microscopes that are needed to process and identify a range of samples. In addition, state-

of-the art DNA extraction, quantification and digital PCR equip-

ment will enhance capabilities for molecular genetic analysis.

Mini Maker Faire

Is a showcase of local Makers: tech enthusiasts, artists, crafters, homesteaders, scientists, gar-age tinkerers, do-it– yourselfers, performers and more. It is a day of activities, demonstrations, vendors, performers and MORE! Bring the whole family for FREE fun! Saturday, Sept. 30th 10

a.m. - 3 p.m. at the Two Rivers Gallery.

PAGE 4 REAPS REPORT HOTLINE 250 -561 -7327

AROUND BC

The 3 year time limit to lay charges under the BC’s Environment Man-

agement Act ended August 4th for the Mount Polley Dam failure.

An investigation led by BC Conservation Officer Service with Environ-ment Canada and Fisheries & Oceans Canada continues but officials

are not able to stay when it will be completed.

Federal charges are still possible under the Fisheries Act.

Premier John Horgan stated he was shocked that no provincial charg-

es are to be laid in the 2014 dam collapse.

Mount Polley was one of the largest dam failures in the world in the last 50 years. It released millions of cubic meters of effluent and finely ground rock containing potentially toxic metals into the waterways, including Quensel Lake, the migratory pathway for more than 1 million

sockeye salmon.

With support from many environmental groups, former Xat’sull First Nation chief Bev Sellars announced that she filed private charges in the provincial court under BC’s Environment Management Act and

Mining over the Mount Polley dam failure.

Environment Minister George Heyman said he would review how the Conservation Officer Service undertakes investigations to ensure they

are expeditious.

Premier Horgan, stated the Conservation Officer Service has limited resources and his government will get to the bottom of why more re-

sources weren’t deployed for this investigation.

The time limit to lay charges under the Fisheries Act is five years there-fore federal charges remain possible. Heyman said that criminal

charges also remain possible in B.C. and federally.

However, criminal charges have a higher threshold of proof, having to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, while regulatory charges are tested under a balance of probabilities. Most court charges for environ-

mental incidents take place at the regulatory level.

Under either situation, charges would have to be approved by Crown

Counsel in B.C. or the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

NDP to Examine the Lack of BC Charges in Mount Polley Dam Failure source: VancouverSun

2.6 Mil Coffee Cups Weekly are

Thrown Out in Vancouver source: Vancouver Metro

BC Newspaper Chains Launch Mass Recycling Plan source: Vancouver Sun

The city of Vancouver wants to find ways to reduce the mountain of trash created by take-out containers, coffee cups and plastic

bags.

City Staff reviewed the coffee cups and other single use items to get breadth of the throwaway problem and find solutions. Disposa-ble cups and takeout containers tend to be lightweight, but they take up a lot of garbage room: they make up half of all the trash

collected in street garbage cans.

Staff report looked at what other cities have done. They found bans were in place for plastic bags and takeout polystyrene con-

tainers.

In Vancouver (and rest of BC) consumers can place their disposable coffee cups in the blue bin at curb and the Styrofoam containers can be taken to depots but are required to wash prior to drop off which is a labour-intensive

process for restaurants.

Vancouver City Staff will soon start consultations with Vancouver residents and local businesses on how to reduce

single use containers.

Newspaper recycling efforts in BC are being stepped up by News Me-dia Canada (NMC) who has initiated a new stew-

ardship plan.

Glacier Media Inc. (owner of several publication including the PG Citizen), the Globe & Mail Inc., Black Press Group Ltd., Postmedia Network Inc. and Sing Tao Newspa-pers formed a group to ensure continued recycling of newspaper prod-

uct in BC.

In 2014 when the new recycling regulations were implemented in BC, the curbside recycler MMBC (now RecycleBC) asked for $10 million in annual fees from the newspaper sector to pay for recycling of newspa-per products which would of caused a hardship for the newspaper in-

dustry according to NMC.

News Media Canada will oversee the process of recycling of the news-papers in BC. Their intent is to gain Ministry of the Environment approv-

al for this plan to be in effect for a minimum of 5 years.

The plan sees the continuation of newspaper products recycled through

curbside collection and at depots has it always been.

PAGE 5 REAPS REPORT HOTLINE 250 -561 -7327

AROUND CANADA

On August 14, Canada, Nunavut and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association announced an agreement on the final boundary for a future national marine conser-vation (NMCA) area in the high Arctic. Tallurutiup Imanga / Lancaster Sound is an area rich in biodi-versity and used by Inuit since time immemorial. The NMCA will be a major step towards meeting Canada’s target of protecting 5 percent of its ma-rine and coastal areas by 2017 and 10 percent by 2020. Once completed, with an Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement in place, the NMCA will contrib-ute about 2 per cent towards these targets.

For a glimpse into this breathtaking Arctic land-scape where narwhals live side by side with thou-sands of seabirds in an area adjacent to vibrant Inuit communities and majestic fjords and glaciers at https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/amnc-nmca/cnamnc-cnnmca/lancaster

Protection of Tallurutiup Imanga / Lancaster Sound

Canadians Already Eating GM Salmon source: CBC

National Strategy Disposing Mercury Containing Light Bulbs source: Global News

A U.S.-based company that produces genetically-modified

salmon has sold about five tonnes of the fish as food in Can-

ada since it was approved last year. AquaBounty made the

announcement August 4, 2017 in its second quarter report.

The company's GM salmon was approved by Health Canada

for sale as food in May 2016. The salmon is engineered to

grow at twice the rate of regular salmon. There is no require-

ment for the fish to be labelled as genetically-modified.

Labelling all genetically modified foods could

create unnecessary fear, says MP

It is the first genetically-modified animal approved for sale as food in Canada.

The House of Commons rejected a private members bill for

genetically-modified food to be labelled last year, but the Ca-

nadian Biotechnology Action Network continues to call for

labelling regulations.

"No one except AquaBounty knows where the GM salmon

are," said group spokeswoman Lucy Sharratt in a news re-

lease. "The company did not disclose where the GM salm-

on fillets were sold or for what purpose, and we're shocked to

discover that they've entered the market at this time."

AquaBounty has previously stated its salmon fillets are indis-

tinguishable from those cut from regular salmon.

It's not clear where the salmon was grown to market size.

The company has a facility capable of growing out fish in

Panama.

Aquabounty also has provincial approval to grow fish to mar-ket size in an existing facility in Bay Fortune, P.E.I. However that plant still requires federal approval.

Canada’s federal government plans to develop a national strategy on disposing light

bulbs containing mercury.

The National Strategy for Safe and Environmentally Sound Disposal of Lamps Containing Mercury Act (Bill C-238) re-ceived royal assent on June

22.

Mercury in landfills is an envi-ronment and health concern, and there are no federal regu-lations regarding the ele-ment’s disposal, according to Darren Fisher, Dartmouth —

Cole Harbour MP,

The report to parliament on the private member’s bill is supposed to delivered by

June 22, 2019

PAGE 6 REAPS REPORT HOTLINE 250 -561 -7327

AROUND THE WORLD

Researchers have placed a price tag on the work that urban trees perform, from reducing air pollution and saving energy to mitigating climate change.

Many of us city dwellers cherish our urban trees as if they were sacred beings. (Which of course, they are!) From behind windows they offer glimpses of life amid the manmade landscape and provide spots for city birds to nest and sing. We drink in their mind-body-soul benefits when walking in parks; we seek their shade in the summer heat. They offer a

dose of nature for the nature-deprived, and for that, they are priceless.

It would be hard to place a value on the soul-soothing pleasure-giving worth of trees, but city trees do a whole lot more than just spark happiness. And now a study published in the online journal Ecological Modelling has come up with a bone fide dollar amount: $505,000,000 per year. Which is equivalent to $4 mil in Prince George.

The figure was determined as per megacity (a city with over 10 million inhabitants), 10 of which were included in the research: Beijing, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Moscow, Mum-bai, and Tokyo. The cities span five continents and host nearly 10 percent

of the world's 7.5 billion people.

The researchers estimated the benefits of tree cover for reducing air pollu-

tion, stormwater runoff, energy costs associated with heating and cooling buildings, and carbon emissions. The numbers look like this, according to

the study:

The present median benefit value from urban trees in all 10 megacities can be estimated as $482 million/yr due to reductions in CO, NO2, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5, $11 mil-lion/yr due to avoided stormwater processing by wastewater facilities, $0.5 million/yr due to building en-ergy heating and cooling savings, and $8 million/yr due to CO2 sequestration.

And if you're wondering: What would happen if we planted even more

trees? The answer is, their services would increase accordingly.

City planners need to take this into consideration. Developers need to reserve areas for green space. Property owners need to embrace trees on their property. People need to be more aware that urban trees are way

more important than just eye candy for sidewalks.

So if you can't sell the idea of planting more trees with any of the other sensible pitches, go for the "free services" angle; who can say no to that?

Though the trees don't care, they'll just continue saving us regardless.

The recycling industry got some big news last month when the World Trade Organization announced that China is intending to stop importing 24 different types of solid waste by the end of the year, including commonly ac-cepted curbside recyclables like mixed paper and scrap plastics.

At first glance, this presents a sizable challenge to how recy-cling will happen in America. The Institute of Scrap Recy-cling Industries (ISRI) esti-mates that by weight, 70 per-cent of the recycling material sent to China that will be cap-tured by the ban is mixed pa-per. But the recycling industry has a history of overcoming market challenges.

“The recycling industry will eventually adjust,” says Adina Renee Adler, senior director for government relations and international affairs for ISRI. “There might be a short-term challenges that can be overcome in the long-term.”

Of the 24 materials listed, the most relevant to consumers are mixed paper (everything from magazines to phone books), scrap plastics (including food containers and plastic casing from elec-

tronics) and textiles (clothing and linens).

While all of these materials do have recycling markets in the U.S., their commodity value means it is often more cost-effective

to export them for recycling.

China launched the National Sword 2017 Program in February, which involved investigating shipments of recyclables at the port, including weighing and X-rays. This included arrests and shutdowns of Chinese recyclers who weren’t using the nec-essary pollution controls.

China represents the largest trade partner for U.S. recyclables, and is one of the world’s foremost importers of recyclable material. If all material is banned, it will be a challenge to

replace that demand for our recyclables.

Demand is growing in India, Southeast Asia and Latin America, but not at the rate needed to replace what we send to China. We also don’t currently have the capacity to recycle everything we produce in the U.S. without exporting.

The Chinese ban is not yet in place, how it will affect the market for what you recycle at the curb is not yet known or at what level it will be enforced.

China’s Ban on Importing Waste May Affect Recycling source: Earth911.com

$500 Million in Services Trees Provide to Megacity Every Year source: treehugger

PAGE 7 REAPS REPORT HOTLINE 250 -561 -7327

ACIDIC

ALKALINE

AREATE

BALANCE

BROWNMATERIALS

CARBONRICH

CARDBOARD

CHEMICALFREE

CHOP

CIRCULATION

COFFEEGRINDS

COMPOSTER

COMPOSTING

CORNSTALKS

CRUSH

DECOMPOSE

DRYERLINT

DRYLEAVES

EGGSHELLS

ESSENTIAL

FEATHERS

FINELYSHRED

FRESHGRASSCLIPPINGS

GREENMATERIALS

HAIR

HANDBUILD

HAY

HIGHTEMPERATURE

HOTCOMPOST

HUMUS

INGREDIENTS

KITCHENWASTE

LAYERS

LIME

MANURES

MIX

MULCH

MUSHROOMCOMPOST

NATURAL

NEWSPAPERS

NITROGEN

NOCOLOURS

NOTTREATED

OXYGEN

PAPERCUTTINGS

PESTICIDEFREE

PILEMATERIAL

PINECONES

PINENEEDLES

PLANTS

PURCHASE

SAWDUST

SLOWLY

SMALLAMOUNTS

STRAW

TEABAGS

TOXINS

TRENCHING

TRIMMINGS

TWIGS

VERMINCOMPOST

WATER

WEEDS

WOODASH

WORMS

65 of 65 words were placed into the

puzzle.

PAGE 8 REAPS REPORT HOTLINE 250 -561 -7327

Recycling and Environmental Action

Planning Society (AKA REAPS)

The REAPS Report is published six times a year, on the first of

January, March, May, July, September, and November.

Articles, originals or reprinted with permission, are submitted by members and represent the opinions of the authors only, not necessarily those of the Society, Board, or members as a

whole.

Deadline for submission is two weeks prior to publication date. Articles, suggestions for articles, or comments in general are much appreciated, and can be submitted to the REAPS office via email at newsletter@reaps.org

If you no longer wish to receive our newslet-

ters via email please email REAPS and state

UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

Mailing address: PO Box 444, Prince George, BC V2L 4S6 Compost Garden and Office Location: 1950 Gorse Street

RECYCLI NG & ENVI RONM ENTAL ACTION & PLANNING SOCI ETY

Phone: 250-561-7327 Fax: 250-561-7324 E-mail: newsletter@reaps.org Website: www.reaps.org Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/REAPSPG

Email:

RECYCLE CRAFT CORNER

Dumpy’s Tip of the Month

Compost Harvest Time

Harvesting your composter in the fall makes room for your winter fruit & veggie wastes that will take longer to breakdown due to cooler temperatures

therefore taking up more space.

Also, if compost is used before it has fully mature, the microorganisms may rob the soil and plants of nitrogen in order to finish the process. Spreading your compost in the fall will ensure that by spring any issues related to com-

post maturity will be eliminated.

Pallet Pumpkins

1/ gather 3 pallets of various sizes

2/ with saw round corners

3/ paint orange

4/ add greenery for stems and leaves