Alberta 2015 Annual Report Submitted by: Call2Recycle Canada, Inc. Submitted to: Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development 10th Flr Oxbridge Place 9820-106 St. NW Edmonton, AB T5K 2J6 2015 Call2Recycle, Inc. All Rights Reserved 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 3 2. About Call2Recycle ............................................................................................................ 3 3. Raising Awareness ............................................................................................................. 4 4. Collections .......................................................................................................................... 6 4.1 Collection Sites ............................................................................................................. 6 4.2 Performance Results ................................................................................................... 7 5. Process and Product/Component Management ............................................................. 8 Collection ........................................................................................................................... 8 Shipping and Sorting......................................................................................................... 9 Processing ......................................................................................................................... 9 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 11 Appendix A –Battery Stewards............................................................................................ 12 Appendix B – Samples of Education & Promotional Activities ......................................... 16 Appendix C – Condensed 2015 & 2014 Consolidated Combined Financial Statements ... 20 2015 Call2Recycle, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2 1. Executive Summary Since 1997, Call2Recycle has collected and recycled rechargeable batteries from consumers across Alberta. In 2012, Call2Recycle expanded its service in the province to a voluntary all-battery recycling program that collects dry cell batteries weighing less than five kilograms from consumers. This year was another one of significant growth for Call2Recycle’s battery collection activities in Alberta. Call2Recycle exceeded the previous year’s performance by 50% and diverted a record-breaking 207,671 kilograms of household batteries from landfills in the province. Awareness initiatives generated hundreds of thousands of electronic and print media impressions, raising the profile of battery recycling as a key part of responsible environmental management. These online, national and provincial promotions along with creative on-the-ground campaigns contributed to the boost in collections. This annual report has been developed by Call2Recycle to report on its voluntary collection and waste management of primary (single use) and rechargeable batteries in Alberta between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015. 2. About Call2Recycle Call2Recycle Canada, Inc. is the Canadian arm of North America’s first and largest battery stewardship program. Our program was established to fulfill the product stewardship obligations of battery manufacturers, manufacturers whose products contain batteries, and certain distributors and retailers of products as may be appropriate. Today, Call2Recycle works on behalf of more than 300 battery and product manufacturers (See Appendix A). Since 1997, Call2Recycle Canada has operated a best-in-class battery collection and recycling program. We collect and recycle batteries and cellphones from municipalities, businesses and consumers at no cost to them, and we promote environmental sustainability across North America. Our goal is to divert as many batteries as possible from landfill. With a network of more than 8,000 collection locations across Canada, our program ensures convenience and efficiency. Call2Recycle’s easy drop, seal and ship collection process makes recycling batteries as simple as possible for both consumers and program participants so that anyone can be a partner in environmental stewardship. Call2Recycle was the first program of its kind to receive Responsible Recycling Practices Standard (R2) certification, which recognizes that our program has met stringent environmental, public, and worker health and safety requirements. Page 3 of 21 3. Raising Awareness For the Call2Recycle program to be successful, it is necessary for consumers across the province to be aware of the importance of responsible battery disposal and to be inspired to recycle batteries regularly. Call2Recycle therefore dedicates significant time and resources to create innovative approaches that educate consumers about the importance of responsible battery management, draw attention to the Call2Recycle program and collection locations, and inspire consumers to take action and recycle their batteries with us. Call2Recycle employed an integrated marketing campaign to increase awareness and battery collections in Alberta, including consumer-focused programs and contests, print, digital and radio campaigns, social media activities, and newsletters and sponsorship initiatives. Website Visits to the Call2Recycle website, call2recycle.ca, increased this Red Deer School Battery year by 50%. Albertans were among those who turned to the Drive, Waste Reduction site in greater numbers this year to get information about the Week, October 2015 program, the importance of battery recycling, and collection Red Deer is a city with a locations. Web traffic from users in the province increased by population of 100,000, and is 56% to 5,425 visitors in 2015 from 3,470 in 2014. Activity on committed to environmental Call2Recycle’s Alberta site locator, which helps consumers find a sustainability. During Waste drop-off location near them—experienced a more than sevenfold growth in 2015. More than 112,000 people used the Reduction Week, nine service, up from 14,999 in 2014. From access to articles, schools competed against information about battery collection drives, downloadable each other to see who could resources and stewardship information, we will continue to collect the most batteries to populate the website with valuable content for consumers and win a great prize for their participants. school. Together, the schools motivated each other to Daylight Savings Campaign collect almost 2,000 kg of In the fall, Call2Recycle launched a nationwide campaign linking batteries, keeping them out battery recycling to the shift from Daylight Saving Time. The of the Red Deer landfill. campaign leveraged consumers’ awareness of the importance of changing batteries in household smoke detectors when they turn their clocks back. Call2Recycle’s campaign—which included newspaper, radio and online ads—encouraged Canadians to take one more step to protect the environment by recycling their old smoke detector batteries and other used batteries around their homes. The campaign generated more than 500,000 media impressions, and reached 4,000 people on social media. Page 4 of 21 Earth Day Canada This year marked the third year of Call2Recycle’s partnership with Earth Day Canada (EDC), throughout which we have developed key education resources and engagement strategies for teachers, students and parents to participate in battery recycling across Canada. This year, we collaborated on the EcoKids Battery Hero and EcoKids Battery Busters contests. The contests received more than 2,000 entries and were an excellent awareness-raising tool to create a new generation of committed battery recyclers. 2015 Leader in Sustainability Through support from Call2Recycle, EDC’s EcoKids also Awards developed five educational webisodes for students and educators to learn more about batteries, consider their Four Alberta-based waste minimization behaviour, and take advantage of the organizations—Canadian Energy Call2Recycle battery recycling program. and Power Corporation, City of Edmonton - Eco Stations, Recycle Government Newsletter Logic, Inc., and Shanked Call2Recycle produces and distributes a quarterly Computer Recycling Inc.—were newsletter specifically for our government partners, to recognized with Call2Recycle’s provide ongoing updates on the activities of the program Leader in Sustainability Award for and our program partners. The newsletter is sent to 2015. The award acknowledges approximately 200 municipalities and municipal partners, these organizations’ exceptional as well as Provincial staff and officials engaged in stewardship or environmental portfolios. commitment to environmental sustainability as demonstrated by Advertising significant collection returns and Call2Recycle’s multi-channel marketing activities included promotion of recycling activities. consumer-focused ads, as well as radio spots in the Canada-wide media. We also ran prominent industry- focused ads in trade publications, including Municipal Information Network, Recycling Product News, Solids Waste & Recycling Magazine and Municipal World. The integrated media blitz resulted in more than eight million impressions being achieved. Events Call2Recycle was present at the joint 2015 Conference on Canadian Stewardship (CCS) and The Recycling Council of Alberta (RCA) Conference in Banff, Alberta. CCS is where industry and government come together to discuss current