Clean Calgary Recycles Calgary Dollars!

The Clean Calgary Association EcoStore gladly began accepting 50% Calgary Dollars at the beginning of this year, as payment for any product we sell, as well as for membership fees.  However, unlike a packrat we are not hoarding our newly acquired bills, but in the true spirit of a local currency we are spending them at other small local businesses and amongst Calgary Dollars individual members.

Before proceeding I want to clarify that the Clean Calgary Association (CCA) is not actually recycling Calgary Dollars, as the title of this article states. The word recycling is often used incorrectly, so this provides me a perfect opportunity to explain the difference between reusing and recycling.  Recycling actually involves a treatment or process to make items suitable for reuse, whereas reusing doesn’t involve any treatment or processing; the item is used again as is.  Therefore CCA is in fact reusing their earned Calgary Dollars when they spend them and not recycling them.

Ironically one of the services CCA is reusing their Calgary Dollars for is recycling!  The CCA offices and EcoStore buy a weekly pick-up service for their recyclables, from Calgary Community Recycling (CCR), for 100% Calgary Dollars!  Yes, the CCA pays for this convenient service entirely with the Calgary Dollars they have received from customers in the EcoStore! 

Plastics #1-#7 (i.e. Styrofoam & plastic containers) are amongst the many items that are picked-up and recycled by CCR, which makes CCA’s goal of producing zero waste much more attainable.  Items picked up for recycling may eventually return to the EcoStore as reincarnated products sold in-house.  Many of the EcoStore’s products are made in part, or entirely, from recycled materials, including office paper, composters, toothbrushes, razors, tongue cleaners, greeting cards, and books!

Another small Calgary business that the CCA is a patron of is Raven Toner & Ink.  They are accepting 50% Calgary Dollars before the GST on their products and services.  Raven is also an environmentally responsible company as they pick-up, refill and then reuse their empty toner and ink cartridges instead of disposing of them after the first use.

Clean Calgary has also reused their Calgary Dollars for deliveries, and to turn a bland second-hand sandwich board into an aesthetically pleasing, store front, pedestrian stopper.  Of course, as business continues to increase at the expanding CCA EcoStore, we will be looking for new ways to spend the Calgary Dollars we collect and the coffee drinking staff at Clean Calgary has heard a rumor that Café con Vida sells fair-trade coffee for 100% Calgary Dollars!

If you are not already earning your own Calgary Dollars see www.calgarydollars.ca to learn how you can.  You too, along with the Clean Calgary Association, can have fun reusing your Calgary Dollars!!!!  In fact, you already know one place you can reuse them – at the CCA EcoStore!