Unless you’ve seen the process of sorting recyclables firsthand, you can’t fully appreciate what goes on behind the scenes. On September 10, members of Niverville council and town staff took a personal tour of the SMILE of St. Malo Inc. recycling depot.

This sorting station in St. Malo, Manitoba is the first stop for Niverville’s recyclable materials. Reusable waste is delivered to their doorstep by Bristal Hauling every week, where it’s loaded onto a series of conveyor belts and hand-sorted based on material: tin, aluminum, glass, paper, and five different types of plastics.

Once sorted, the materials are dropped into a large compression machine that creates massive bales of like materials. The bales are then stacked where they await pickup or delivery to their next destination—the manufacturer or broker who seeks out buyers interested in repurposing the used products.

Niverville’s paper products end up at North Star Fibre in Morden, where they’re turned into blown-in building insulation. The balance goes to Cascades Recovery+ of Winnipeg, who sells it to buyers from around the world.

SMILE receives a monetary payout for the products they sort, which generally fluctuates according to market demand. This valuable income stream helps provide employment for 63 workers and SMILE’s administrative staff.

But SMILE is far more than just a waste-sorting facility. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing employment, housing, practical assistance, and programming for area residents living with intellectual disabilities.

The very nature of this business model provides a whole new reason for all of us to recycle as much as possible.

Four homes for the intellectually disabled exist on SMILE’s site and around the community, each providing a degree of independence to residents with varying levels of cognitive ability. SMILE provides support, opportunities, and resources to each one.

For higher-functioning individuals, the hope is that SMILE will be a gateway to new employment opportunities as they learn job skills and time management. For others, the organization gives purpose, socializing opportunities, and a nominal income.

“We have some that are extremely high-functioning… and then we have the next one that needs more help… but everybody has their [specific] jobs here,” says Ashley Kantimere, day program manager. “We work to their ability.”

But one trip past the loaded conveyor belt indicates that this job isn’t for the faint of heart. A cacophonous noise pervades the facility, the sound of cans clanging and glass smashing into bins beneath the floor where the conveyor belt hums.

The workers grin and wave as visitors pass by. Some turn from their work for a hug, a handshake, and a quick inquiry into where the visitors are from. The day council visited, SMILE workers were busy sorting through a collection of Niverville’s recyclables.

One woman, notably disgruntled, reminded the visitors to stop putting garbage into their recycling bins. Just moments earlier, she’d had to deal with a bag of kitchen scraps full of maggots.

According to the facility manager, Pat Hamonic, this is not an uncommon occurrence.

“[We get] table waste and diapers,” says Hamonic. “We get TVs, we get sinks. You name it, we get it… [It seems like] lots of people just clean their houses out and throw it all into their recycle bin or drop it off here.”

Cat litter and dirty diapers are some of the most common problems, he says. Working the conveyor belt, employees are confronted with all kinds of nasty surprises. While Niverville residents have gotten better since recyclables first began arriving here, he says the community could still use some improvement.

These waste items, too, need to be sorted into a bin for the landfill—and landfill delivery comes at a cost to the facility, eating into their meagre profits.

SMILE’s executive director, Helen Lariviere, says one solution to keeping useless waste out of recycling bins is to locate garbage and recycling receptacles at opposite ends of the kitchen or school classroom so mistakes like this are less likely to happen.

Dirty recyclables also add a level of discomfort for workers. A gentle rinse of a can or milk jug goes a long way to preventing the foul smells and mould that permeate the materials.

And taking a bit of extra time at home also saves valuable time for workers at the facility. Removing lids from containers allows them to be crushed into tighter bales. Separating non-similar materials that are packaged together means the workers don’t have to—for example, removing the non-recyclable plastic bladder from a box of wine or separating the wax paper bag from the outer cardboard of a box of cereal.

Education on the accepted recyclable plastics is also important. Keeping a list handy in the kitchen helps. Residents can find a number within a recycling symbol on most plastic containers. Numbers accepted for recycling here include 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7.

Because it’s a relatively small facility, SMILE has the luxury of going the extra mile. Mason jars and wine bottles are donated to individuals looking for these items. Beer cans and bottles are separated and turned in at the local beer vendor for a higher cash payout than would be available from recycling brokers.

Lariviere says that they host a lot of tours for school children and sports teams and they welcome visitors who call in advance. Children, she says, are extremely impressionable and once they get a firsthand look at the process behind recycling, they go home and help their parents work on better recycling practices.

And, as director, she’s always working at improving what they do at the facility.

“My dream is to buy this beautiful machine they’ve got in Switzerland that takes glass and polishes it into pebbles that you can use [for decorative landscaping],” says Lariviere.

Her hope is to grow the facility to a place where they can begin to repurpose materials onsite rather than shipping them away, thus reducing some of the carbon footprint caused by recycling processes.

But machines built to repurpose recycled materials come with a steep price tag, so supporting the growth and sustainability of organizations such as SMILE is just one more reason for residents to keep on recycling and recycle responsibly.