June 2014

To our customers, staff and friends –

I am especially pleased to forward to you Emterra’s second quarter ‘Terra Notes e-newsletter.

While this has been a particularly busy three months, it has been very satisfying because the Emterra team has been spending time on some of our favourite and most cherished projects in our Community Care program. We recently enjoyed a delightful morning with Niagara Region Chair Gary Burroughs and folks from Niagara Health Systems OneFoundation to deliver a cheque for $44,000 to support cancer treatment in Niagara.

Plus Emterra staff in Winnipeg got to hang out with Pat Krawec of the Winnipeg Repair Education and Cycling Hub (WRENCH) and some of the youngsters who are part of WRENCH’s ‘Earn-a-Bike’ program. Pat and his staff teach volunteers and kids how to repair and restore discarded bicycles. Then they see to it that the kids who can’t afford a helmet get a shiny new one along with the bike they’ve repaired themselves. What can be better than financially helping an organization that empowers youngsters so they can experience the joy of riding a bike all summer!

On the business front, we have been concentrating on significant upgrades to several of our recycling processing facilities in BC to increase capacity and improve flexibility in managing the volume of materials expected to be collected under the Multi-Material British Columbia packaging and printed paper recycling program and as businesses increasingly demand more options for waste diversion. Finally we are delighted to welcome new and returning municipal customers in Michigan and Ontario.

There’s a lot more happening at Emterra, so we hope you’ll spend a few minutes with us catching up on the news. As always, Paulina, Vivian and I thank you for your business and fellowship. To our staff, we thank you for your ongoing commitment to service excellence both within and outside of our organization. We wish everyone a warm and wonderful summer.

 

Emmie Leung, CEO and Founder

Emmie Leung, Emterra’s founder and CEO has been named a nominee in the prestigious Ernst & Young (EY) Canadian Entrepreneur Of The Year Program, Ontario region. Read more

In the third year of its ‘Make Your Contribution at the Curb’ challenge, Emterra Group has added $44,000 to its donations to the Walker Family Cancer Centre, bringing the total so far to $120,000. Emterra has pledged to contribute up to $500,000 to the cancer care facility through 2018 based on how many tonnes of grey and blue box materials Niagara Region residents recycle each year. Read more

There’s no doubt that May 19 was a watershed day in British Columbia (BC) as we at Emterra, took a deep breath and dove head first into providing both collection and post-collection services for Multi-Material British Columbia’s (MMBC) packaging and printed paper recycling program. As most will know, Emterra Group partnered with two other industry leaders to form Green by Nature EPR (GBN) to bid on…and win the contract to provide post-collection services for 1.25 million households and to process an estimated 185,000 tonnes of recyclable material.

It’s a tall order but Emterra was willing and able. All we had to do was get ready for the increase in recyclables beginning on MMBC’s program launch day May 19 and that involved undertaking some impressive upgrades at three of our BC recycling material recovery facilities (MRFs). Read more

Over 2,000 municipal representatives took in the sights and sounds of Niagara Falls, Ontario this past May while attending the Federation of Canadian Municipalities 2014 conference. Many delegates stopped by the Emterra exhibit in the tradeshow area to find out how Emterra recycles scrap tires into products that are used to make patio tiles, engine parts and doormats, how printed paper and packaging are recycled into new products, and how we transform stale-dated, alcohol and sugar-based liquids into a highly-effective, environmentally-friendly windshield washer fluid. Read more

Kids and bikes go together like milk and cookies. So, when some kids in Manitoba can’t ride bikes because they don’t have proper helmets (required by provincial regulation), something needs to be done. That’s where Emterra Environmental in Winnipeg comes in. Read more

The semi-annual Chilliwack Shred-a-thon continues to divert tonnes of confidential documents from disposal in landfill and net cash and donated non-perishable food for the local Salvation Army. Read more

Emterra Environmental USA employee, Ann Walker from the Flint division saw an opportunity to give shredded paper a second use and help a local pet store provide a cozier environment for young pups and kittens. Read more

Emterra Group is excited to develop existing relationships and build new ones with communities across Canada and the United States! Read more