Thanks to your support in 2020!

Let’s Talk About Mental Health

by Textile Waste Diversion Inc.

image“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.” – Aristotle

Yesterday Bell Canada celebrated its Lets Talk About Mental Health Day, and over 100,000,000 text, tweets, shares and calls helped raise millions of dollars for mental health initiatives.  We were happy to participate in #BellLetsTalk on Twitter not only in celebration of Bell’s wonderful community building initiative, but also to show our support to the millions of Canadians living with mental illness.

What does textile recycling have to do with mental illness? A lot, when you are a committed barrier employer like TWD!

Life happens. Sometimes it’s biological, heredity or even life experiences that leave an imprint. For some, temporary life experiences cause temporary issues like anxiety or situational depression. Sometimes issues can arise that are very difficult to handle, and telling an employee to “leave your problems at home” is not the solution.

Every day 500,000 Canadians miss work due to some form of mental illness. At TWD, the opposite is true. Our staff have been known to show up on days off just for a laugh and a hug….and for some of staffer Marissa’s home cooking!

We know that when the work environment is loving and supportive, work can be a great therapeutic confidence building practice. At TWD we threw antiquated, restrained protocol out the window. We operate on the premise that love heals all things. We encourage a sense of humour, and embrace our eccentricities.  We are flexible, and offer options like telecommuting, job sharing and flexible scheduling to accommodate individual productivity rhythms.

We understand that financial stress can compound issues around mental illness. Our staff can sit with our president at any time and talk about anything going on in their lives, with no judgement. Whether it’s financial trouble or a broken heart, he’s always there to lend advice and a hand.

There are many jobs in the textile recycling industry that are well suited to employees suffering various forms of mental illness.

We have several employees that live with PTSD, meaning the social aspect of many workplaces can be problematic for them. Many of our team find great success working in maintenance. They work independently, during off-quiet hours, and some even job-share any customer contact tasks they’d rather not deal with. The physical aspect of the job is also therapeutic.The best part is, its a well paying job which helps to alleviating financial stress.

At the corporate level, we have found some of our most innovative thinkers and problem solvers also live with issues like anxiety, insomnia, or depression. We don’t have strict start times at corporate headquarters, we have to-do lists. As long as the work gets done well, we aren’t restrictive on when/how it happens.

Our therapy dog Sarah is also on hand every day to offer kisses and cuddles to anyone needing support. She’s very intuitive, and is always at the feet of employees experiencing stressful moments to offer affection.

Mental illness doesn’t have to be a barrier to success in the workplace. At TWD, we embrace the whole person, we are flexible and accommodating. Our staff is happy, productive and loyal.

It’s simple: Love is good for business, and we encourage all companies to adopt more open dialogue around issues of mental health.

20200

Packaging and trash

Out of every $10 spent buying things, $1 (10%) goes for packaging that is thrown away. Packaging represents about 65% of household trash.

 

Save the trees

If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.

 

In the bin!

Used aluminum beverage cans are the most recycled item in the U.S., but other types of aluminum, such as siding, gutters, car components, storm window frames, and lawn furniture can also be recycled.

 

Kiss this!

An estimated 80,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using enough aluminum foil to cover over 50 acres of space -- that's almost 40 football fields. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.

Packaging at the dump

About one-third of an average garbage dump is made up of packaging material!

Glass skyscrapers?

Every month, we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable!

Plastic bottles by the hour

Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!

The Sunday paper

To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.

The aluminum recycling loop

A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can in as little as 60 days. That's closed loop recycling at its finest!

 

What gets recycled in Canada?

By weight, organics comprise the largest portion, accounting for 22% of recycled materials from all sources, followed by newsprint (17%) and cardboard and boxboard (17%).

Recycling by the Province

While on the rise overall, recycling varies quite widely from province to province. Ontario and Quebec recycle the largest quantities of materials, but the amounts of material recycled per person and the recycling rate are higher in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.

Canadian vs. American residential waste

Canadians produced 366 kg per person of residential waste in 2020; by 2020, this figure had increased to 418 kg per person. By way of comparison, residential waste production by our neighbours in the United States was 440 kg per person in 2020.

   

Canadian waste

In 2020, Canadian households produced 13.4 million tonnes of waste. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of this waste was sent for disposal, according to Statistics Canada’s 2020 Waste Management Survey, while the rest was recycled.

A great reason to recycle!

Landfills produce approximately 25% of Canada’s methane emissions (methane is a powerful greenhouse gas). Recycling, including textile recycling, can help reduce the amount of waste entering landfills and help conserve natural resources.

How much water do ice caps and glaciers hold?

The amount of water locked up in ice and snow is only about 1.7 percent of all water on Earth, but the majority of total freshwater on Earth, about 68.7%, is held in ice caps and glaciers.

How much recyclable material gets thrown away?

Paper is the number one recyclable material that we throw away. For every 100 pounds of trash we throw away, 35 pounds is paper. Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam coffee cups every year, 40 billion soft drink cans and bottles every year, and 38 billion plastic bags. Placed end to end, they would reach to the moon and back hundreds of times.

 

How much household waste can be recycled?

Over 80% of typical household waste - including food scraps, yard waste, paper, cardboard, cans, and bottles - can be recycled, reused, or composted.

How much carbon dioxide can a car emit?

On average, a car produces about 170g CO2 per kilometer. If your car travels 2020 kilometers per month, it produces about 340 kilograms CO2 - that's a lot of carbon dioxide!

How much harm can one styrofoam cup do?

A styrofoam cup contains one billion billion CFC molecules - a class of chemical compounds that deplete ozone. Once a CFC molecule reaches the ozone layer, it can take over 100 years before it breaks up and becomes harmless!

How many trees are cut down each year?

In 2020 statistics, primary forest area was reduced globally by 60,000 square km per year (about the size of Ireland). While it's impossible to get an exact count, at a rate of 50K to 100K trees per square km, this equates to 3 to 6 billion trees per year.

Worldwide Metals Production

Between 2020 and 2020, worldwide metals production grew sixfold, oil consumption eightfold, and natural gas consumption 14-fold. In total, 60 billion tons of resources are now extracted annually—about 50% more than just 30 years ago. Today the average European uses 43 kilograms of resources daily, and the average American uses 88 kilograms.