[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Hey Steve. Uh, They just, uh, they just started a recycling program here, I think. Actually, this is my first experience with recycling program but, uh, instead of just like tossing everything away which I always felt bad about, uh, I am starting to split stu-, split stuff up. The only disadvantage is that they don't pick it up at the curb. They make me drive it like a mile down the road and spit it out down there. What are they doing up there?
[speaker001:] Well, here in Saskatoon, uh, [inhaling] much the same thing. There is no curb pick up of, uh, any of the recycled products. Uh, we're in a community of about one hundred and eighty thousand people. Uh, there are areas where we could, uh, actually we have a couple of the, uh, handicapped societies, types of places where the uh, [inhaling] one they do as just a recycling operation and then others they collect the paper and ship it to other retailers so, uh, we are able to, uh, have drop off bins for news papers and cardboard and that kind of thing and then there are, there's a uh, deposit program on plastic and glass containers. Well, primarily soft drink bottles and so we are able uh to take it to one of the uh, rehabilitation centers and then they recycle the containers. They refund the deposit which is anywhere from five to fifteen cents a container and then,
[speaker002:] The, the deposits only on like drink stuff.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] On the, on primarily on soft drink, pops and that kind of thing
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] and, uh, so, they induce recycling of plastic and glass, soft drink containers. Uh, we do have one of the scrape metal dealers that will accept tin and aluminum cans as well
[speaker002:] Oh, okay.
[speaker001:] and actually the recycler, there is a deposit on aluminum pop cans and beer cans and so the recycler, uh, with the handicapped group will also accept those. So, uh, it's fairly, fairly extensive, but then again it's uh, it's the initiative of the individual person because there is no coordinated pick up by the city.
[speaker002:] So, did they, you're giving, are you giving these products to the handicapped group and the handicapped group is getting the uh, the money or or are you, or are they some home distributing the funds back to you.
[speaker001:] Well, actually there's, there's the opportunity for both.
[speaker002:] Oh. Okay.
[speaker001:] Generally the, uh, the handicapped group takes care of the things that actually, the government has placed the deposit which is the inducement to re-, recycle the bottle so that you get your money back and then the recycler run by the handicapped society pays back the cost of that deposit and then I, and then they in turn will get some money from the bottlers and from the the people that do the canning of the pop and the beer as as well [NOISE].
[speaker002:] That's very cool. You know there's a, I heard about a similar program in New York City where, uh, a thing called like Homeless Incorporated or something like that, but what they do is employ, uh, homeless, I think mostly men, but homeless people to uh, go out and collect all the recyclable cans and and I think it's mostly cans. There may be bottles as well, but like beer cans, soda cans and what not and they, uh, bring them up to a one lo-, one centralized location and, uh, are able to collect the money from the various beer and, and soda manufacturers and, uh, and get more money to these people that desperately need it.
[speaker001:] Oh yeah. Uh, I guess partly because of our climate. Here in Saskatoon at least, the majority of central, uh, well, I want to say Central Canada, but Central Canada tends to referred more to Ontario and Quebec
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Yeah.
[speaker001:] but, uh, [inhaling] we don't have much of a situation where we might call them homeless people. We certainly have a fair number of people that are on welfa-, welfare and unemployment insurance and that kind of thing. [inhaling] Uh, there's psychological pressure against employing people to do that kind of thing although, uh, scouts and hockey teams and ball teams, those kinds, uh, regularly do bottle drives where they go around in various neighborhoods and collect the bottles at individual homes.
[speaker002:] Do they do it with news papers as well?
[speaker001:] [Inhaling] They have done it some, uh, but we have actually quite an extensive network of collecting news papers. They are actually at, [inhaling] virtually all of the shopping centers. Like the shopping malls. There are several containers where the group called Cosmopolitan Industries collects or people can drop their used news papers and other papers in the bins and then the bins are collected.
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] Uh, some of the,