Reducing, reusing and recycling became household words and the answer to our crammed landfills and burdened consciences. But in the North, recycling in particular is still just gaining momentum as a viable waste recovery initiative.

The mere suggestion of recycling to a Yellowknifer is usually greeted by a scoff, a doubtful glare or an intelligible grumble about futility.

"I field so many calls and questions about whether or not we actually recycle," says Katherine Silcock, the city's environmental co-ordinator. "It seems to be the big urban legend of Yellowknife that we don't recycle."

Yellowknifer Mindy Willett acknowledges these widespread rumours and that the recycling system may not be perfect.

"I've heard lots of rumours that things are stockpiled or just dumped, but I know something is better than nothing," she says.

Willett still makes the effort to recycle -- tossing her baked bean tins in a cupboard cluttered with cans and bottles. When she's got the time, she'll load up her car and haul her recyclables to the dump.

"I wouldn't say that I'm totally loyal, but I do my best, says Willett. "But, our dump is almost full and the environment would be better off if we used less, then reused what we had and then what we couldn't, we'd recycle."

What goes on at the dump

Yellowknife's solid waste facility has another four years of life left before bloating up to its full limit. Come 2007, a new plot of pristine land adjacent to the current dump will likely be cleared only to be blanketed in diapers and car parts.

From within, the dump might seem like a chaotic pile of stink, but junk is organized into piles -- some reserved for crushed and baled recyclable goods like rubber tires, aluminum cans or old refrigerators. Undoubtedly, most is trash, and 40 per cent of Yellowknife's waste stream is paper. But, despite its appearance, the dump collects and rids recyclable as it receives them.

The blue bin

You've surely passed one of Yellowknife's three recycling depots -- larger versions of the curbside plastic blue boxes in some provinces. But, instead of chucking all recyclables into one bin only to have it effortlessly disappear from your curb the next morning, Yellowknifers must transport their goods to the nearest depot (or the dump) and sort the tin cans, aluminum cans, glass and newspaper. Also, if you've got milk jugs, waste oil, batteries or cardboard, you could unload them at one of the dump's designated heaps.

Not much to ask, but tricky to enforce good practices. Bin contamination is a common problem, with people dropping glass into the tin can slot, or white paper in the newspaper compartment. Not a big deal, but that means city staff at the dump have to sift through and decontaminate. That's if people even take the time to recycle, More often than not, Yellowknifer's are throwing their newspaper and tin cans into the trash.

"We just don't have enough manpower to have people sorting through bins for white paper," says Silcock. "People see all the newspaper, or bales of aluminum cans and think we don't recycle."

Last year, the waste facility collected, crushed, baled and shipped 117 tonnes of cardboard and newspaper, 127 tons of white goods (old refrigerators and appliances), 108 tons of batteries, nine tons of milk jugs and one ton of aluminum.

Although Yellowknife's solid waste facility doesn't support recycling on site, they bale and ship items to Edmonton to a few specialized recovery plants that either recycle on-site or shuttle recyclables farther across the country for handling.

Of all recyclable goods sent to Southern counterparts, aluminum is trickier to ship regularly. Eleven bales (each containing approximately 35,000 crushed cans) have been stored at Yellowknife's facility for the past year waiting patiently until aluminum market prices increase enough to absorb shipping costs.

Sub-foreman Bruce Underhay has taken this walk regularly with new reporters hoping to uncover truths about Yellowknife recycling and change popular opinion.

He shuffles slowly, stopping to survey a bale of rubber tires and to spew off another bleak statistic. Underhay says it's frustrating seeing garbage contaminated with bottles, cans and newspaper that could've been salvaged.

"There's definitely room for improvement," he says. "Only two per cent of all Yellowknife waste is recycled."

By comparison, Whitehorse manages to recycle 15-20 per cent of its waste. Other parts of Canada have provincial mandates for municipalities to reach certain waste diversion targets. Ontario, for instance, has a 50 per cent waste reduction goal.

Vast distances to markets and high costs have prevented any real development or improvement of local waste diversion.

But, following the three R hierarchy and aiming for more determined waste diversion measures, we should reuse before recycling.

Glass is the only recyclable material that remains in Yellowknife. Since glass is most expensive to bail and ship, bottles and containers can only be stockpiled or dumped in the landfill. The NWT and Nunavut are the only jurisdictions without beverage container legislation. But, a proposal for bottle recovery is in the works.

A beverage container recovery program proposal was submitted to the legislative assembly in October. The proposal was based on a discussion paper, completed in May 2001, and information compiled in a public consultation report. The proposal is currently in a standing committee review phase.

"It's really a shame that there's no systematic, organized way to make sure that it's recycled and shipped down South," says Doug Ritchie of Ecology North.

"The great thing about the deposit legislation is that it will give a boost to recycling programs across the North and particularly for smaller communities that don't have an organized program," he says.

The proposed legislation would introduce deposits for beverage containers. This "polluter pays" system provides much-needed incentive for people to hang on to containers, which will invariably reduce the amount bloating up the landfill. In this case, beverage container can be aluminum cans, drink boxes, Tetra-pacs, glass and plastic bottles.

A different dump mentality

To compensate for our embryonic waste recovery initiatives, Northern dumps boast a unique system. It's where perfectly sane people wander the stinky piles searching for bedside tables and clock radios. It's like a flea market, but everything's free for the taking. Reusing at it's best. At least we've got that right.