Tell One Friend: Set up an Eco Station Box

Spring is coming! Which means that spring cleaning is bound to take place in many households. Setting up a specific spot to collect Eco Station items is important. This will help keep batteries, light bulbs, paint, and e-waste out of the garbage and recycling.

Here's the secret: Make a space for that waste.

Collecting those common, everyday items is the first step. Set up a handy box for Eco Station items, in the house. Get everyone in the house to agree on an accessible spot. 

This also helps friends and neighbours make fewer trips to the Eco Station, with more items.

View a full list of acceptable items, locations and hours here. 
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Share Your Message Effectively
Try these tips to connect with friends, family, neighbours, and co-workers.

Model the Behaviour
Have your Eco Station box in a visible and accessible location for members of the household and for visitors to see.

Make it Normal
Make a social media post talking about how your household manages their waste. 

Offer Timely Prompts

"Will you set up an Eco Station box in your house?”

Give Positive Feedback
"Hey, I noticed that you have an Eco Station box in your garage. That's great.”

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Did You Know? Eco Stations take items for the Reuse Centre, too. Separate your Reuse Centre items and bring them to the attendants on site.

Visit edmonton.ca/ecostations
Previous Changing Waste Behaviour: How to Shift Social Norms

     

Tell One Friend: Take Your Battery out to an Eco Station

If a household item makes noise, lights up or connects to the Internet, then it almost certainly has a battery. Did you know that batteries in the garbage can leak toxic chemicals into the air, soil and water? The can also interact with other items in the trash and explode or catch fire.

Do you use a lot of batteries?

Try rechargeable batteries. Making the switch saves money, reduces waste, and helps the environment.

Juicy Tips

• It's FREE to drop off batteries, e-waste and Household Hazardouswaste at Eco Stations.
• Find the closest Eco Station. Visit edmonton.ca/ecostations
• Take batteries out of devices.
  Remember batteries in remote car locks, watches, musical greeting cards, cell phones and more...
• Put tape over both ends of the battery. This prevents reactions with other objects.
• Batteries (and other Household Hazardous Waste) are not accepted at Big Bin Events.
• Edmontonians can also discard batteries at many local retailers.
  Click here for local retailers that recycle batteries.

Share Your Message Effectively

Try these tips to connect with friends, family, neighbours, and co-workers.

Model the Behaviour

Show friends and family how to store and drop off batteries to Eco Stations or drop off location and how to find where.

Offer Timely Prompts

When you spot batteries that need replacing, remind friends and family about how to properly dispose of used batteries. Talk about the benefits of rechargeable batteries.

Give Positive Feedback

"You are really helping the environment by taking those batteries to the Eco Station!"

Visit edmonton.ca/ecostations

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Strathcona Eco Station Temporarily Closing for Renovations

The Strathcona Eco Station will temporarily close for renovations on Sunday, October 28, and will reopen in spring 2019. There will be no access to the facility during the scheduled period.

Renovations to the facility include both routine maintenance and upgrades to ensure the best possible experience for customers. The upgrades to this busy Eco Station are aimed to alleviate wait times for customers, increase the number of bins available, and lengthen the driveway to increase the overall efficiency of the location.

During this period, residents are encouraged to visit one of the other three City of Edmonton Eco Stations: Ambleside, Coronation, and Kennedale.

Visit edmonton.ca/EcoStations

     

Edmonton Eco Stations win North American Award

The City of Edmonton’s commitment to the environment through proper waste disposal is being recognized with a prestigious industry award.

The Eco Stations program received the Gold Excellence Award in the category of Special Waste from the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA). This is the first time the City of Edmonton has won this award.

“Eco Stations play a key role in Edmonton’s integrated waste management system as they enable residents to keep household hazardous waste and electronics out of the environment,” said Chris Ward, Branch Manager for Utility Services at the City of Edmonton. “This recognition is not only a testament to our environmentally sound waste management system but to the residents of Edmonton who use the services and participate in our programs.”

Eco Stations provide convenient drop-off facilities for household hazardous waste (such as paint, batteries and electronics) and for large items that are not appropriate for curbside collection. There are four Eco Stations strategically located in each quarter of the City. Since the inception of the program in 1995, more than 2.7 million customers have been served and 16 million litres of household hazardous waste have been diverted from landfill.

SWANA’s Excellence Awards Program recognizes outstanding solid waste programs and facilities that advance the practice of environmentally and economically sound solid waste management. Programs must demonstrate commitment to utilizing effective technologies and processes in system design and operations, advancing worker and community health and safety, and implementing successful public education and outreach programs.

For more information:

visit edmonton.ca/EcoStations

Activities for Community League Day

Community League Day is coming - are you involved? In the spirit of MCR Maria K, here are three "simple suggestions" for promoting waste reduction at your Community League Day celebration.

Host a Free Table

Got a pile of stuff you were saving for your favourite second hand store? Most of us do! Invite your friends and neighbours to bring their charity-bound items for a swap or "free stuff" table.

They'll save a trip to the local thrift shop, while still making sure their items will be used again.

Make sure you have a plan to get leftover items to your charity of choice afterward.

Collect Batteries

Everyone has a few dead batteries for disposal. Show friends and neighbours that batteries and light bulbs are just like paint and bleach - hazardous waste that should go to the Eco Station!

Set up a collection box for household batteries, that you will transport to an Eco Station after the event.

Batteries should never go in the garbage!

Note: Eco Stations do NOT receive waste from businesses and institutions. If MCRs collect a bunch of household batteries, contact the MCR Team for instructions.

Collect [Gently Used] Warm Clothes for Donation
We know that Edmonton winters can be harsh. Set up a collection station for warm clothing to donate.

Connect with one of the organizations in our city that works to keep homeless and low-income Edmontonians safe and warm. Check with them beforehand about donation guidelines.

Here is a short list of organizations that accept in-kind donations of clothing:

Keep Edmontonians warm this winter by
holding a coat drive.
Image from The Windsor Star

Coats for Kids & Families
Bissell Centre
YESS - Youth Empowerment & Support Services
The Mustard Seed
Wings of Providence
Edmonton Emergency Relief Services Society
Bag of Hope
Hope Mission

Know another organization? Please post in the comments.

September 19, 2015 is Community League Day. Have fun in your 'hood.
Contact your community league. Find your community league.

Turn Them In with Battery Newman

What can you learn about proper waste disposal from a singing battery? Quite a lot, when that singing battery is as awesome as Battery Newman, the star of the music video ‘Turn Me In.’ Battery Newman sings in the style of another famous Newman – Randy Newman. His new hit points out the importance of taking batteries and other household hazardous waste and electronics to an Eco Station for proper disposal or recycling.

The video is part of the City’s  ‘Turn Them In’ Eco Stations campaign. As spring has finally arrived (yay!) and Edmontonians are beginning their spring-cleaning and renovations, this is the perfect time of year to get rid of all those waste items that are taking up room in your house or garage.  Household hazardous waste and electronics can be turned into an Eco Station for FREE! (Who doesn’t like that price?) These kinds of items include batteries (of course), leftover paint, light bulbs, old computers, syringes and broken power tools.  

Speaking of renovations, Eco Stations also accept renovation waste and bulky items too big to set out for collection (fees apply). Pop over to edmonton.ca/ecostations for a full list of items that are accepted at Eco Stations.

#EcoSelfie

Did you know that the City just opened up its fourth Eco Station? The newest addition is the Kennedale Eco Station, located at 53rdStreet and 127th Ave. This means that there is now an Eco Station in each quadrant of the city! Eco stations are really easy to use and the attendants are always on hand to help out and answer any questions you might have.

"Turn me in to the Eco Station, so I don't leak acid from my face."

Eco Stations aren't just great places to turn in waste for proper disposal or recycling, they’re also places where you can reuse items. The Ambleside Eco Station in the south, and new Kennedale EcoStation both have a Reuse Area. You can take any of the items that are in the Reuse Area at no cost. You don’t even have to drop anything off at the Eco Station in order to take something! The items in the Reuse Area are items that were turned in to the Eco Station and that staff deemed to be in good condition and reusable.

There's really no excuse, to keep around a battery, once it's run right out of juice

The other item you can pick-up (not free) from all four Eco Stations, which may be of even more interest to you composter fans, is Second Nature® compost, made at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre. For a list of other Second Nature® compost retailers please visit edmonton.ca/compostsales.

Join the thousands of Edmontonians who turn in dangerous waste to the Eco Station every year!

If you’re like me and Battery Newman has inspired you to create and share your own informative waste disposal or reduction video (how could you not be inspired by Battery Newman??), you’re in luck! The 90waysto90.com site allows you to do just that! Upload your video on any waste reduction method (composting tips perhaps?) to help Edmonton achieve our goal of 90 per cent of household waste out of landfills.

Get your friends and family to like and share your video. Have fun and remember...turn in your household hazardous waste!