Lifecycle of an election sign: from busy print shop to recycling plant

“We can print directly to the coroplast, so keeping the prices low. Also, it makes a very fast turnaround time,” Boylan said.

Even with 32 people running for council and five for mayor, design overlaps aren’t a problem.

“Some want them to look similar to others. Some of the municipal elections have wanted them to look like the provincial or federal election campaigns,” Boylan said. “We can make it work, however.”

But following an election, signs are supposed to be removed after three days.

So where do they go?

“Certainly we found out that we can recycle those signs,” Randy Wong, an operations manager with recycling company Green for Life Environmental, said.

He says election signs are recyclable, and he encourages it. But a few things need to happen before they’re tossed in a blue bin.

“Some of those signs are put together with some wood, some are put together with metal, all that has to be taken off where the sign is just a plastic lexan,” Wong said.

Wong recommends dropping off used election signs at the GFL transfer site in Dunmore. That way staff can make sure they end up in the right place.

“I’m afraid that a lot of the signs if they’re just thrown in the recycling depots or in the bins, that those are going to get turned into cardboard, which we know is not cardboard,” Wong said.

Wong says the federal election signs are already being collected and in about a month, it will be the same for municipal signs.

But until then, Boylan will keep printing as the race for municipal and county elections continue.

by Teagan Rasche

Lifecycle of an election sign: from busy print shop to recycling plant

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