May 31, 2010 pretty average day! :)

May 31, 2010 at 6:29 pm · Filed under Community, Environment, Social Media, Vancouver, Volunteer ·Tagged charity, donations, Recycling, sfu, ubc, Vancouver

I have an iPod touch, and not an iPhone, and so it’s easier for me to take photos and come back to the office to post them in a blog, rather than tweet them as they happen.

First job today was out near UBC for a new construction management firm. They’re tearing down the house and they needed to get the garbage out.

And there was garbage!!! Here’s some evidence. White, wiggly bugs! Also known as maggots. They like hanging out in the trash. Pablo, who’s usually a pretty tough, strong guy (works as a bouncer, picks up the heavy stuff – you know the type) was soooo freaked out by them he kept sweeping them out of the garage and kept saying “Reeeaallly???” every time I said, “They need to be put in the truck. They’re garbage!” He couldn’t do it. It was really funny. Well, it’s really funny if you’re me. Pablo didn’t see the humour. Most customers would immediately squeal “Eeeeeek!” and rush inside to call the jovial gang at Fresh Start 😉

Reason 714 to hire Fresh Start? White, wiggly bugs!

It wasn’t all gross though. Sure some of it was – old bags of garbage can be like that but we were able to rescue 10+ bags of clothes for donation that were pretty nice (I was too busy donating to remember I’m supposed to be a photojournalist at the same time).  We phoned my good friends over at Homestart (www.homestart.ca) to come and get the furniture items for donation. The customer really liked that because it meant they didn’t have to pay us for removal and it meant it all went to charity. We also liked it because we sometimes encounter charities that are too full. We tragically end up with items that we’re unable to donate because there’s no room for them inside. The trick to increasing the amount you can donate is to “donation only” runs early in the morning. With this lot of buggy bags, I knew the charity would take one look at us and tell us to “amscray” so we did the wise thing and phoned Homestart to come out and cherry pick the great stuff we left behind. Thanks for coming out Homestart!

We were also able to get a whole bunch of bottles and cans out to give to a person who collects bottles and cans on a professional level.

Me, rummaging for bags of bottles and cans

Me: "Hi, would you guys like some bottles and cans?" Them: "Yes please!" Me: "Do you mind if we take a pic for the blog?" Them, "Not at all".

Him: "Thanks! What's the website?" Me: "freshstartrecycling.com" Him: "not .ca?" Me: "Nope. .com"

That’s a direct quotation of the entire conversation – then we went to recycle the paper we pulled out of that house.

Pablo recycling

So that was our first call of the day – Pretty successful if you ask me.

The 2nd call was some drywall for SFU.

By FAR the easiest drywall job I've done in my 6 years at Fresh Start.

And the third was some wood recycling – less exciting so no pictures this time. One day I’ll grab some because It’s pretty neat how they run the wood through the chipper to recycle it for pulp or paper, hawg fuel, or to be turned into beams for new construction.

So there you have it folks. An average day at Fresh Start Recycling. Call 604-637-6400 to book a call and leave a voice mail – I’ll call you back asap!!!  (If I’m in the truck working and snapping pics and writing in a blog, how can I ALSO answer the phone?)

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