59 Carden St.

The paper lid?

Posted by Magda
Apparently top secret US navy research has led to a paper lid, to top a paper cup, so the two can bee recycled together. That was revealed to Toronto's coffee-lid working group yesterday, as they met for the first time to try to figure out how to deal with the tremendous numbers of disposable coffee cups in the city's waste stream.

One proposal had been to ban cups in which the lid is made of a different material than the cup itself, to ease recycling. That led to some outcry last year when it became clear that favoured styrofoam cups with plastic lids over the typical plastic-lined paper cups with plastic lids.

• Could top-secret U.S. Navy coffee-cup lid be the answer to our prayers?, Globe and Mail, Jan. 15

Secret military research conducted at a little-known facility in Seattle, world capital of take-out coffee, has produced the "Holy Grail of environmentalists," according to Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, colourful chairman of the city works committee.

A paper lid that fits snugly on a paper take-out cup.

"They said, 'We can build nuclear plants but we can't make a paper lid,' " Mr. De Baeremaeker exclaimed, recalling his recent debate on recyclable lids with Canadian coffee titan Tim Hortons. "They said, 'It's impossible. It's never been done. We have no suppliers. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't do it.' "

And so on, and on and on."Well here it is," he concluded, flourishing the artifact in question. "It's rather cute."

...




• As long as you can still roll up the rim..., Nov. 10

Nothing's simple

Posted by Magda
When I set out a month ago to find out whether any disposable coffee cups are recyclable in Guelph, I never imagined it would be this complicated. I've talked to several coffee shop owners, the municipality and a provider of green coffee cups. It's clear, but far from simple. The bottom line, it seems, is that the best option is to bring your own mug. Although the city suggests putting disposable cups in the blue bag, they aren't recycled. Lids and sleeves, though, are.

Read the nuances of this in the paper tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a light-hearted video about a twisted and complicated topic.

• As long as you can still roll up the rim, Nov. 10

20 litres?!

 Posted by Magda
I was pretty surprised -- and perhaps I'm showing my age here -- to hear that, as recently as the 1980s, toilets had 20-litre tanks. Today, the city is offering incentives to homeowners who will swap out their toilets for 4.8 or 6-litre flushes -- which would save 75 to 100 litres a day and could pay itself back within a year or two.

The city is working on phase two of its water conservation plan, with an aim to cut water use by 10% by 2010, 15% by 2015 and 20% by 2025.

Read more in the paper tomorrow.

District heating not viable

Posted by Magda
Owens Corning is one of the city's biggest energy users. But capturing renegade heat from the York Road plant and using it to heat homes is not viable, city staff report. That's because of the low density of the surrounding neighbourhood. The report says the project will be reconsidered if future development in the Ward makes it appropriate.

That's one of the many energy-saving plans the city came up with to help meet our community energy plan. The plan for district heating in the Mountford Drive area by reusing heat from the Ecotricity plant was also considered not viable. Among projects that look hopeful:

• Building a combined heat and power generation plant at the University of Guelph, which would save the emission of about 16,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year;
• Installing 1000 solar roofs in the city -- apparently several companies are interested in setting up a solar park, and one could be put in at Eastview;
• Creating a green building strategy and other incentives to encourage developers to build green;
• Making the new south-end firehall green -- it's projected that it'll use 50% less energy and 30% less water.

Much ado about drive-thrus

Posted by Magda
"Perhaps a community’s resources would be better spent on getting people out of cars period rather than focussing on drive thrus," the mayor writes on her blog.

She cites stats from the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

I can only imagine what a crowd council would draw to a debate on whether to ban drive-thrus. Councillor Leanne Piper suggested as much last month (keep scrolling...) regarding a proposal for commercial development on Silvercreek.

The cost of being green

Posted by Magda
The city's waterworks pumping station goes to Bullfrog power -- wind and "low-impact hydro" -- tomorrow. It's going to cost $60,000 extra, and it amounts to 5% of the city's power use over seven months.

By my calculations, that means switching all of the city's energy use to Bullfrog would go for an extra $2 million a year.

City going greener

Posted by Magda
The city's water pumping station will run on green power as of next week. The F.M. Woods pumping station, south of York Road by the river, will run on Bullfrog power, of which 20% comes from wind and 80% from "low-impact hydroelectric power."

There's more information on the city's website. I'll try to write something for tomorrow's paper.

Green fire, police station

Posted by Magda
The $9.3-million joint fire, police and ambulance station coming to the south end will be certified green. At least that's what the city hopes will come out of a variety of innovative features they're planning to put on the station. Those include:

• cutting energy use by about half;
• cutting water use by a third;
• producing 5% of the energy onsite, through wind or solar;
• using recycled, local, renewable materials;
• diverting construction waste from landfill;
• using solvent-free chemicals;
• etc.

Read more about this in the paper, perhaps tomorrow or Monday.

The grassroots way

Posted by Magda
The city is angling for green building certification, called LEED, for the new city hall. Part of that involves having a plan to throw out as little construction material as possible.

The handmade signs around city hall today seem to represent a grassroots but innovative approach to that.

On saving energy

Posted by Magda

City officals were at Queen's Park last week to update ministers about Guelph's progress on things like saving energy, reducing waste and redeveloping the York lands. They talked about a number of energy saving projects the city is working on:

• Recovering waste heat from the Ecotricity plant, which is generating electricity from the now-closed Eastview Landfill, to heat a nearby subdivision;
• Recovering waste heat from Owens Corning;
• Building a cogeneration plant -- a plant that generates heat and electricity together -- to power the University of Guelph;
• Installing 1000 solar panels in Guelph, as spearheaded by the Guelph Developers Association;
• Getting involved in a federal energy labelling project with Natural Resources Canada, to label buildings according to their energy efficiency (this is something the city has applied to be part of, but there's no news yet on whether they've been accepted);
• Cogeneration for a provincial facility coming to the south end (it's too late to include that in the first phase of the project, but it could be incorporated later);
• District energy for the Hanlon Creek Business Park (district heating involves generating energy close to where it's used, so less is lost through transmission);
• Ensuring the York lands redevelopment is energy efficient.

It's an impressive list. I'm working on a story about what else the city and province talked about. Read all about it tomorrow.