Recycling

The City of Calgary has a corporate objective to reduce the amount of waste generated and sent to the landfills. This includes diverting 80% of the City’s waste by the year 2020. Calgary Transit is committed to meeting this goal by implementing a variety of cost-effective waste diversion programs that follows the fundamentals of the 3R’s.

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle
One of the challenges of The Calgary Transit’s ongoing environmental programs is the managing of the 3R’s from a variety of products used throughout the operations. Traditionally Calgary Transit had focused on two of the three R’s (reuse & recycle) which included:

• Used oil and filters
• Recycling metals
• Recycling vehicle batteries
• Rebuilding and reusing parts off vehicles and other equipment

More recently these programs have further expanded to include:

• Using 100% recycled paper in our office printing and photocopying
• Recycling newspaper and cardboard
• Reusing vehicle antifreeze
• Recycling fluorescent tubes
• Recycling aerosol Cans
• Using low VOC paints and recycling solvents

Calgary Transit is always looking at further ways to improve on its waste diversion program specifically looking at ways to reduce material consumption such as:

• Using rechargeable batteries in place of one use alkaline batteries
• Use of longer lasting more energy efficient lights
• Eliminating hazardous chemicals in the workplace with less hazardous and more environmental friendly products
• Purchasing products in bulk and returning the containers for reuse
• Using absorbent product containing recycled content, with good absorption properties