Old shipping crates reborn as Taloyoak garbage bins
Last Updated: Friday, January 25, 2008 | 2:56 PM CT
CBC News
A Nunavut community has found an innovative use for discarded wooden crates from barge shipments: make them into badly needed garbage bins for residents.
Hamlet staff in Taloyoak started fashioning garbage boxes from the crates last month. About 70 bins have been made so far, with another 70 boxes needed to outfit all the houses in the hamlet of 810.
Taloyoak builder Glen Sutherland stands beside his handiwork. Four or five garbage bins are built a day from the old shipping crates.
(Photo courtesy Kevin Taylor)
Residents hired by the hamlet are recycling wood from the crates, which were recovered from a five-plex in the community.
Covers on the new bins prevent ravens and dogs from getting into people's garbage — a major problem with the 45-gallon uncovered garbage cans that residents had before, said David Irqiut, the hamlet's acting senior administrative officer.
"We'd like to keep our community clean. When animals get into garbage bags, they create a lot of mess," Irqiut told CBC News.
"I think it's very good for the community that we recycle and make use of wooden crates that otherwise would have been probably demolished."
Hamlet staff are halfway through outfitting all houses with the new garbage boxes. That effort is expected to wrap up early in the spring.
