The CN Campus in Winnipeg has been recycling paper and other office materials for a long time, but CN EcoChampion Colette Disbrowe recently got an idea for improving those efforts. With many new recruits and other employees coming to the training centre for anywhere from two days to nine weeks, Colette noticed that many articles of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were being left behind.

“While we were cleaning a storage room, I noticed a bunch of used PPE– like safety vests and hard hats – that had just been thrown in a box. I wondered if it was usable because a lot of it was still in good condition, but much of it was being thrown in the garbage,” says Colette, the logistics coordinator at the CN Campus. “I put the hardhats through the dishwasher and dried them outside on our racks, and if it's a safety vest or a lantern in good condition, we'll reuse it. But we won't make somebody wear somebody's used gloves. So, we didn’t know what to do with the rest of the stuff.”

After reaching out to CN’s EcoConnexions team about PPE recycling programs, Colette was referred to Heritage Interactive, a best-in-class waste management company.

“We ordered our first collection bins in 2022 and put them at the front in our atrium so everybody could see them,” recalls Colette. “Now, when our janitorial staff clean the classrooms after everybody's gone, they take the PPE that's been left behind -- safety vests, gloves, safety glasses, earplugs -- anything that's wearable – and put it into that box.”

Every three or four months, once the bin is full, Colette’s team contacts the organization, and they pick it up. Much of the material can be broken down and reused for other purposes, she notes. Colette is delighted that so much PPE has been diverted from the landfill, and that her team’s effort has made an impact.

“I've got grandkids, and I'm a big believer in recycling,” she says, noting she’s keen to implement a recycling program for the foam earplugs that end up all over the ground. If we encourage people to recycle those, that helps the environment, too.”

CN’s EcoConnexions Employee Engagement program drives sustainability across CN's network by empowering our team members to take action to build a more sustainable future.

Visit our Delivering Responsibly section to learn more about sustainability at CN.