Why Recycle?

1. Conserve Resources

Recycling helps reduce the consumption of natural resources such as trees, used to make paper, fossil fuels used to make plastics, and metals extracted through strip mining.
Producing aluminum from scrap instead of bauxite cuts energy use and air pollution by 95 per cent. 
Making paper from discards instead of trees not only saves forests, it reduces the energy used by up to three quarters and requires less than half as much water.

2. Reduce Waste

Precious landfill space is conserved when you recycle; 15 per cent of waste from houses and apartments is diverted from the landfill through the City's recycling programs.
Still more is recycled through the bottle return depots run by the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation. Edmonton residents recycle approximately 10,300 tonnes of aluminum, glass, poly-coated and plastic beverage containers.

3. Create Jobs

Many companies in the Edmonton area are directly involved in processing recyclable materials or in making new products containing recycled material:

  • Alberta Newsprint Company makes new newsprint from old newsprint and magazines.
  • Can-Cell Industries makes cellulose insulation from newsprint and other mixed paper.
  • EMCO (formerly Building Products Company) makes building and asphalt shingles from mixed paper, cardboard and boxboard (e. g. cereal boxes, shoe boxes).
  • AltaSteel makes rebar (for reinforced concrete) and other steel products from metal cans.
  • The City's Materials Recovery Facility has a staff of 36 to sort and market our recyclables.

For more information:

Telephone

In Edmonton: 311

Outside Edmonton: 780-442-5311
Email wasteman@edmonton.ca
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