Canadian Retailer - Winter 2013 - 39

The Brick's warehouse in Mississauga, ON is the company's environmental beacon.

(107.40 MT) of EPS. EPS is a major issue at the landfills as well as
a very expensive waste to remove
if not processed and recycled. Not
only has The Brick removed this
weight from the landfill, reduced
its costs on solid waste pickups
and cost per MT at the landfill, it is
now generating revenue from this
once costly waste stream.
• In the same period, 204,309 lbs.
(132.89 MT) of plastic has been diverted from landfill. As the case with
EPS, plastic is a valuable commodity
that can be processed and sold.
• Over the last 12 months, the Mississauga DC has recycled 1927.45 MT
of cardboard. To provide an idea of
how that impacts our environment,
in 2012 the Mississauga DC alone
has saved 32,766 trees that otherwise would have been felled.
“Another custom program created
at The Brick is mattress recycling,”
explains Smith. “Old mattresses are
picked up by a vendor who completely recycles each mattress. Each mattress is treated for bed bugs using dry
heat, and then stripped. The coils of
steel are recycled, while the padding
and material are baled and sent to be
turned into bedding and mattresses
for the less fortunate. The Brick processes over 20,000 mattresses at the

Mississauga DC facility alone.”
There isn’t much The Brick doesn’t
recycle anymore, and efforts have
been so successful they are moving
from the DC’s to office facilities as well.
“Purchasing the necessary recycling equipment was quite expensive,
but the Return on Investment (ROI)
is less than 5 years,” says Sousa. “The
savings come from having far fewer
bins sent to the landfill. In the past,
we may have sent one or more a day.
Now it’s more like one a week.”
The Brick and GreenSpace have
truly designed a unique program that
works well for this location that optimizes diversion as well as reduces
cost. Together, they are staying aggressive with efforts to continuously
improve their programs and continue
to develop programs that are focused
on environmental sustainability.
“Being environmentally conscious
is an investment in time, money and
culture. But it’s the right thing to
do,” asserts Sousa. “I’m an environmentalist, and much of my off-time
is spent in the outdoors enjoying
nature. As a result I take great satisfaction in reducing waste, both as an
employee of The Brick and as a citizen of this planet.”
The Brick has proven that a retailer
can be both profitable and committed
to environmental sustainability.

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Canadian Retailer - Winter 2013

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