Recycling in Apartments

About Minto

15,500 suites under management Located in Ottawa, Toronto and

London Mixture of town homes, garden

homes, maisonettes, terrace homes, high-rise, mid-rise, and walk up apartments

Ranging from stand alone apartments to large communities

About Minto

Minto creates better places to inspire life - Dedicated to making the world a better place

Aon Hewitt’s “Green 30” - MacLeans Magazine 2010 Green Leadership Award – Hotelier

Magazine Audubon International Green Leaf Rating 180 Kent – LEED Platinum candidate

development 2010 Green Builder of the Year – Ontario

Home Builders’ Association 2010 Finalist in the GLOBE foundation’s

Awards for Environmental Excellence

SO WHAT??

Some Garbage Statistics

From Statscan 2008KG/Capita total KG/Capita Diverted Diversion Rate

Canada 256 131 51%

Ontario 250 145 58%

4,000,000 plastic bottles used each day in the United

States - 1 of 4 is recycled Recycling Rates Drop in Apartments – CFRA News Radio

June 2“Apartment dwellers are not helping the City of Ottawa's waste

diversion rates. The quarterly performance report for Council shows the decline in multi-residential recycling rates continued a two-year trend in the first quarter, with waste diversion dropping to 19.3 per cent”

Minto

Working on Environmental issues for over 10 years

How we deal with our customers’ waste has a huge impact on the environment

Minto 2010 Statistics from our multi-residential rental properties:

KG/Suite Total KG/Suite Diverted Diversion Rate 700 310 44%

Garbage versus Recycling – or both??

External Factors

Toronto – migrating garbage from property tax bill to separate charge Ottawa – organics pick up starting in multi

residential in November 2012 Customer Satisfaction Customer Co operation

Garbage = financial impact to the bottom line

Internal Factors

Capital Cost for equipment (TriSorters = $30k/Building on average

Operating Cost (garbage removal) Staff Impact (staff injury from strains

and sprains) Educating our customers on recycling,

reducing, impact on the environment Garbage room layout Access to appropriate power sources Ventilation Storage space for garbage and

recycling

Our Experience

Recycling centers for over 10 years New buildings – tri-sorters in high rise Existing buildings – experimenting with

introducing tri-sorter Experimenting with two different buildings that have identical sister buildings in same area

Our experience so far??

A TALE OF TWO CITIES – “IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES”

Building #1

260 suite hi rise, built approximately 1965 Mid level building Demographics: Mixed building with families & singles,

1.75 average occupants per suite, average age of primary occupant is 44 yrs

Garbage/Yr Paper/Cardboard Plastic/metal

Pre Tri Sorter 1092 260 52Post Tri Sorter 832 520 416Delta -260 +260 +365

Note (1) Same building, before and after Tri Sorter installation

(2) All measurements in cubic yards

(3) Garbage is compacted, recycling material is not compacted

Building #2

179 suite hi rise, built circa 1983 Upper mid level building (condo style) Demographics: Mixed building, 30% students,

average age of primary occupant is 34 yrs, 1.48 occupants per suite average

Garbage/Yr Paper/Cardboard Plastic/metal

Non Tri Sorter 347 225 185Tri Sorter 336 384 156Delta -11 +159 -29

Note (1) 2 sister buildings, same time period (2) previous garbage and recycling levels in buildings nearly identical (3) all measurements in cubic yards

Keys to Success

Educate Staff Educate the customer Make it easy for the customer Educate the customer Monitor the success and evaluate the impact Educate the customer Include garbage protocol in move-in package Posters in each garbage chute room

Educate, Educate, Educate

Lesson Learned

Educate front line staff Educate customers Measure, Monitor, Measure again Work with your suppliers for best practices Continuous marketing (reminders, posters) Part of move-in package and orientation Enforcement for all those who don’t follow

protocol Make it easy and visible