Vaughan celebrates Waste Reduction Week!

Reduce, reuse, recycle and recover! These are the four Rs that guide this year’s Waste Reduction Week, kicking off today through to Sunday, Oct. 24. Throughout the week, the City of Vaughan will provide tips on how residents can reduce their household waste, apply many new and simple waste-less habits and learn about our shared responsibility to the planet to cut down on waste for its environmental and health impacts.

Today’s Waste Reduction Week topic is the circular economy: what it is and how you can use it to help the planet.

The circular economy is when resources and items are used and reused continuously, not just used once and discarded. Here are actions to consider to adopt circular economy habits:

• Before an item is tossed away for good, check if it can be recycled for a new purpose. Choose fewer, higher quality clothing and household items that will serve a purpose longer. Repurpose textiles as rags to replace paper towels for clean-up around the house and donate all used clothing and textiles at a York Region Community Environmental Centre or local second-hand store, or participate in the City’s Curbside Giveaway Days on Saturday, Oct. 23 and Sunday, Oct. 24.
• Local libraries are the original sharing economy. Borrowing books and other items reduces waste, clears up space in your home and saves you money from buying new. In partnership with York Region, Vaughan Public Libraries has a Lendery at Pierre Berton Resource Library. A Lendery is a library of items you can borrow, like tools, kitchen equipment, sports gear and more. The Lendery can save you money, space and time. Visit the Lendery at Pierre Berton Resource Library or check out the online catalogue to see the full list of items. You can also view VPL’s Zero Waste reading list for some great books on waste reduction.
• Recycling makes a difference. All items Vaughan residents properly recycle are sold as commodities and transformed into new products. Cardboard, paper, aluminum and steel are highly valued and easily repurposed.

Properly sorting your waste items in the blue box not only helps reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfills but also keeps collection days running smoothly. Some citizens may think they’re recycling properly, but they may be “wish-cycling,” a term meaning that items are placed in the blue box without the certainty they can be recycled in York Region. In the sorting and hauling process, wish-cycling may end up costing more to the economy and the environment than if all items are sorted properly.    

Not sure if a material is recyclable? Check first by downloading the Recycle Coach App through the Apple App Store or Google Play for information on sorting your items. The app provides waste-less tips and a personalized collection schedule with optional alerts on what to put to the curb each week. The City also offers an online sorting tool so you can quickly and easily check what item goes where using the search bar. Citizens can register online at any time to purchase garbage tags, blue boxes and green bins and exchange damaged or broken City-branded bins through Service Vaughan.

Zero waste starts now. The City of Vaughan challenges you to share your waste reduction efforts with a selfie or another picture or video using the hashtag #VaughanWastesLess on social media. For more information on waste services in Vaughan, visit vaughan.ca/waste.

The City has proclaimed Monday, Oct. 18 to Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021 as Waste Reduction Week to further its commitment to protecting the environment and fostering a more sustainable future – a priority outlined in the 2018-2022 Term of Council Service Excellence Strategic Plan. The week’s primary purpose is to celebrate the City’s environmental efforts and achievements while encouraging new innovative ideas and solutions for citizens to reduce their own waste and conserve the environment.

The City of Vaughan is a leader in waste management. Vaughan’s early commitment to York Region’s SM4RT Living Plan (Waste Management Master Plan) further strengthens that leadership. This plan identifies initiatives that set the stage for waste management to 2059 and beyond, focusing on the four Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle and recover – working toward building a circular economy and a “world in which nothing goes to waste.”

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