So what really inspired the following idea was seeing a friend of mine who built a massive "cat castle" out of recycled cardboard for his kittens.
Every municipality with a recycling program should also have a "Repurposing program". A good quantity (most?) of recycling ends up in the landfill because it's not perfect enough for reprocessing.
-
Start with a volunteer to charity based pilot. Municipalities are responsible for sorting out suitable materials and providing space for volunteers to refurbish. Materials are then provided free of cost to non profits and schools.
-
Build a culture of reusing & repurposing through school craft programs, community garden projects, etc
Less narrow...
- Successful pilots expand project to collecting 100% of refillable containers such as milk jugs and glass jars for refurbishing. As well as opening municipally owned refill stations for staples such cooking oils, household products, etc. Provinces could partner and provide buying power for distribution.