Being Green and Creating Jobs!

By Doug Dowhos

Over the last 10 years, the Ontario March of Dimes in Thunder Bay has taken a pro-active role in developing and managing affirmative businesses. These are profit-driven, stand-alone ventures with a multi-faceted goal: to provide meaningful employment for persons with physical disabilities, in an integrated work setting; to provide an opportunity to assess and train clients who are referred to the Employment Services division of the organization; to provide a positive example to the community and other businesses on how people with physical disabilities can be integrated into the workforce; and finally, to provide the organization with the potential for additional revenues to expand existing programs or create new ones that will benefit people with disabilities.

In total, these businesses employ more than 30 full- and part-time employees, 30 per cent of whom have a disability. The operations range from microfilming to the management of landfill sites in unorganized townships in the area.

As with any successful business venture, a consumer need must be identified and the means by which this need can be filled must be developed. The recent "green" or environmental movement has presented a number of unique business opportunities to entrepreneurs.

The Ontario March of Dimes in Thunder Bay is not new to the re-use/recycle "push." The organization has been involved in the re-use of secondhand clothing, furniture and electrical goods for over 20 years in their secondhand retail outlets, the MOD Shops. This business has just expanded into the baling and shipping of non-saleable clothing to Third World countries. Approximately half a million pounds of clothing that would otherwise have been destined for the landfill site are transported each year.

One of the more unusual initiatives the organization has become involved with is the City of Thunder Bay’s Blue Bag program.

By the early 1990s, most major metropolitan communities in Canada were running multi-material curbside recycling programs. Because of increased transportation costs in northern Ontario, the lack of end-users for the recycled goods, and the growing awareness of the true costs of operating a multi-material program, Thunder Bay lagged behind in the recycling area.

The recycling of newsprint, however, which represents the bulk of waste in a typical household garbage bag, appeared viable in this community with the construction of Canadian Pacific Forest Products’ new de-inking facility.

In May of 1991, the Ontario March of Dimes developed a business plan covering the processing costs of running a newsprint recycling program. The need within the community for some form of recycling factored into the City’s ultimate decision to begin a multi-fibre recycling program using recyclable blue bags instead of the more usual blue boxes. The result is a unique partnership. The City of Thunder Bay is responsible for the bi-weekly curbside pick up of the newsprint/magazines. The Ontario March of Dimes is responsible for the processing, baling and storing of the paper products, and for shipping them to Canadian Pacific Forest Products for the ultimate creation of a recycled paper product.
Working within a 6,000-square-foot facility, the staff receives approximately eight tons of newsprint and magazines per day. The material is picked up by a forklift with bucket and placed on a specially designed chute and sorting table. The sorting area, where the magazines are separated from the newsprint and contaminants taken out of the stream of material, was ergonomically designed by the staff occupational therapist.

Job rotation techniques enhance job enrichment and counter the repetitive nature of some of the tasks. Staff is responsible either for operating the forklift, tying the bales or working at the sorting table. Corey Pientok, shipper/receiver, says, "There is a teamwork approach to the operation with all the staff assisting each other to get the jobs done. Some of us may have a physical limitation which can be overcome through this teamwork approach."

Rob Labate, who recently won a silver medal in shotÄput in Nottingham, England at the Robin Hood Games for athletes with cerebral palsy, feels "the job at the Blue Bag Recycling Plant has allowed me to contribute to a group effort where my abilities are appreciated."

The operation, in its third year, is currently looking at expanding into other recyclable products. Says one staff member, "The success of this operation, both from a cost and operational standpoint, has positioned the Ontario March of Dimes well to handle other products once secure end-users are identified."

The net result will be additional jobs and opportunities for persons with physical disabilities. (The plant currently employs five staff, two of whom have physical disabilities.)

Awarded the "Best New Initiative of 1992" by the Northern Support Business Systems for enhancing job opportunities for persons with physical disabilities, the Ontario March of Dimes in Thunder Bay will continue to explore potential business opportunities in growth industries such as recycling.

(Doug Dowhos is Business Manager of the Ontario March of Dimes’ Thunder Bay Regional Office.)