The classic advice for helping the environment – reduce, reuse and recycle – can be applied to almost every area of our day to day life. Last week in honour of UN Environment Day, EALT staff pledged to conserve energy by being diligent about turning off our computers and printers.
Beyond turning off the lights and our computers, reusing and recycling paper as much as possible, printing our business cards and brochures on recycled paper, and working from our homes to eliminate our need to drive to an office, EALT does even more to reduce, reuse and recycle, even on our conservation lands.
REDUCE
When we manually control weeds at our properties by mowing, pulling or cutting, we time it just right. Taking action before the weeds bloom means that we reduce waste because we can leave the plants there to decompose, instead of putting them in bags and bringing them to the landfill. We’re reducing the amount of waste produced, and timing it so that the weeds don’t produce more seeds and continue to spread.
REUSE
Sometimes our properties have old materials on them that can be reused for a different purpose. Take this entry gate at our Boisvert’s GreenWoods property, for example. Jamie, one of our outstanding volunteers, reused a fence post and wood planks from an old cattle corral to construct this. Not only did this mean EALT didn’t have to pay for new materials, we could also reuse something already there and give it new meaning. We plan to use the rest of the wood from the old cattle corral for other construction projects in the near future.
RECYCLE
Last year, we removed over 9.5 kilometres of old barbed wire! So what to do with all that old metal? Scrap metal such as old barbed wire can be brought to an Edmonton Ecostation for free and will be recycled into something else useful. And as a result, our properties are safer for wildlife too!
How do you go above and beyond to reduce, reuse or recycle?
