Revolutionizing Recycling: A Coffee Chat with Simar from Sol Recycling

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George Panayi: welcome listeners to the meeting for coffee podcasts, I'm, your host, George. And today we have a special episode featuring, fascinating individual.

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George Panayi: His name is simmer simmer, as we say. Yeah, simmer

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George Panayi: he's making a significant impact in the world of sustainability

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George Panayi: simmer is a key player at soul recycling where innovation meets environmental consciousness. In this episode we'll dive deep into simmers, journey explore ground breaking initiatives at soul recycling, and gain valuable insights into the future of sustainable practices. So grab your favorite beverage it. Better be coffee or tea. I'll let that slide. Sit back. Let's embark on this insightful conversation with Simmer. Thank you for joining me. Simmer. How are you?

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iPhone: Thank you for having me, George. Good yourself.

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George Panayi: I am great just enjoying a nice coffee in the morning. We're all on the run these days. Are you ready for Christmas?

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iPhone: As ready as one can be, my friend. You know there's always things to do still stuff to buy for the kids. So you know, we're we're trying. Well, that that's that's fantastic, man, you know. This time of year is very cool time of year to be around family. But

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George Panayi: being Greek, and I know you have an Indian background. We're around family all the time. So I mean, it's.

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George Panayi: you know, it's it's not really that different for us. It just, you know, more food, and not that we really need it. You know my belly is always full. So

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George Panayi: I'm used to overeating. And you know, my mom, you know I Christmas dinner sometimes, or whatever occasion it is. It's like, you know, she's like, let me get you a play and just put me some some chick in there for me, you know, just some salad, and just fill everything up, and

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George Panayi: she gave me everything. So it's a

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George Panayi: the joyous time of overeating and sometimes we we take that for granted, and you know there are people in need during this time of year.

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George Panayi: your biz, your business. Very special so recycling. Can you share it with our listeners? Your personal journey? And how

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George Panayi: you became involved in the field of sustainability and recycling.

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iPhone: Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I was always an environmentalist like from birth. II would say it, just it's just I don't know. It's the way II grew up, really. And so my my dad in Canada. Here he owned a printing company still does still a small print shop, and

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and I noticed there was a lot of of course, from immigrant parents. The whole family's involved. And we're working since we're kids. Right? So I was involved in the business from the start, from when I was

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iPhone: both 13 years old, and I grew up in the business, learned business from my father. I went to Ryerson University for printing as well.

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iPhone: and what I noticed as I got older we were throwing out a lot of paper with

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iPhone: like die cuts and things like that just from the machines. And it just seemed wrong. It seemed wrong. They're like there has to be something, you know, the better than just throwing it in the garbage right? And I'm like, Oh, we've been doing this forever, and this is how it is.

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iPhone:  And then I got, you know, to to do my research. I was 25 at that time, and started researching of better ways. And how? Because the the key was that, hey? We have a blue box system at home, and newspapers and print stuff is being recycled. Why are businesses doing it?

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iPhone: Very? Why is waste only our solution

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iPhone: garbage. And I did my research. And I figured out where people were recycling

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iPhone: paper, and that was out of the Us. And the Us. What they were doing. Take scrap paper, make insulation out of it, and it's for home insulation, like the pink stuff that you'd seen inside your walls.

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iPhone: I partnered with them, saying, Hey, we can supply you guys this much paper waste from my dad's company. Are you interested? They said, of course we pay for it. And I said, Okay, amazing. Let's start this. And from there

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iPhone: a light bulb went off and I found it sold recycling.

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George Panayi: That's amazing.

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George Panayi: So you guys seem to be at the forefront of

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George Panayi: innovative recycling practices. Can you tell us about some of the unique initiatives and technologies that a company like yours is implementing?

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iPhone: Yeah. Yeah. So

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iPhone: firstly. recycling. And the way these companies. So what? Really, I'm gonna get into it. Really, George, if you don't mind, I'm just gonna

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iPhone: okay? Good.

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When. when originally, when I started my company, what I noticed was the other. Only other recycling comes were waste companies.

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iPhone: But these waste companies were owned by landfills essentially right, or they had a very break steak and link landfills, and the only reason they were recycling is because the consumer wanted them to recycle, so they would recycle as much as they could. And and in that way there was a lot of wish cycling happening as well. Right? So they would put a recycling bin, and they put some plastic sense of paper present and some contaminated waste contaminated me waste, meaning like

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iPhone: a peanut butter jar with still peanut butter in it. Right? So you put in the recycling bin, thinking it's plastic, you know, will be recycled. But really it wasn't. It's just wish cycling. So you'd see these waste companies with these green trucks and and all this stuff. And it's just it's green washing and the green and and wish cycling a lot of that when I entered the industry. And I was like, this is not good, but there's not an actual recycling company right? These are just

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iPhone: camouflage should look like one. But because there was a conflict of interest there, and it me being in business, II

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iPhone: yeah, I get it. I get it right. They have to. They have to run their business of landfills. So us, being a new company is easy for us to just be recycling company like, so we have no affiliate with landfills. We started from this from day one a recycling company, never a waste company, and and that's. And we've been doing this now for 10 years. We've been business of 10 years now. And that's the reason why I'm starting to do these podcasts and media outlets is to

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let the consumer know that waste companies and recycling companies are 2 separate industries and 2 separate ways of processing. So when you approach

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iPhone: a waste company to handle your waste from your business.

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iPhone: Know that

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iPhone: their first call of action is to landfill, because that's where all their investment is. Right so. And then when you call strictly a recycling company. When we look at your ways, it's a totally different perspective. We it's called urban mining. We will pick out the valuables that you could earn money from, which is plastic metals and paper.

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iPhone: and put a rebate system in. So then the whole company, because, remember, people are in business for the bottom line, for the most part right? And so we affect the bottom line. So then it gives them an incentive to recycle cause before. When these recycle, like our competitors, are recycling companies, their their whole thing was.

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iPhone: we'll mail you a box. You put all your recyclables in it, and you mail it back. It's it's not convenient. And we're in a convenience economy. right? And that's why those recycling companies never really succeeded. So I had to really study like my first 5 years of business. Honestly, George, I was gonna close my doors every single day.

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iPhone: Right? Cause it's so we're struggling right? Struggling to compete with the big guys and and struggling to make a a recycling, an actual commodity right? But at now, 10 years in. We've succeeded right, we've broke that. And now I have to get the word out. I have to tell companies that hey.

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iPhone: we recycle. We pay you for your waste, and let's say we cannot recycle your waste. We're at a we're at a point where we brought this

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iPhone: technologies from Italy. Well, firstly, like, before I even get into that point.

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iPhone: like as Canada as a whole, even, I would say, North America as a whole, we're very behind

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iPhone: in how we how we recycle right? The European, the European countries are.

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iPhone: There's little countries in Europe that are 0 waste of landfill, entire, entire entire States, you know. And

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iPhone: incredible right? So when I started traveling to do more research on recycling, I was like, we are way behind the wheel here and in the reason why is, too, because one can has a lot of land right? So we have no push to recycle, like, I just keep digging a hole and putting it in right at a site out of mind which is not the right way of doing it, because soon enough it will catch up. And then I think we're at the point that it is catching up because climate changes

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iPhone: right? A big issue now.

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iPhone: So

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iPhone: we we brought a solution to Canada. There's a machine that we brought here which converts all the non recyclable waste. And the reason I really brought this machine is for medical base right for the hospitals because that type of waste, even if it's recyclable, it's still hazardous.

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iPhone: right? So there's no real solution to that

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iPhone: right? So we were land filling all that material that we brought this machine in. And it's a non incineration machine, like the traditional way of dealing with medical ways would be burning it

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obviously with the emissions that

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iPhone: emits from burning. It was obviously 2, but like they say, it's a 2 steps, 2 steps forward and one step back. Kind of scenario. Right? So yeah, you are getting rid of the waste. But you're admitting it to the the air right? All the Co. 2 and the emissions that pollute the air. So it wasn't the right way to do it. So we brought a machine that uses a thermal friction based technology. So it doesn't burn at all.

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iPhone: And the byproduct of from that machine it's called

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iPhone: fluff. It literally looks like stuffing. That would be much. And this stuffing is actually needles. It's plastic, it's it's all like the ivy bags. It's it's your bandages. It's it's your mass from Covid, and all that stuff mixed into

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iPhone: where

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iPhone: and in the by product, it looks like this Fluff. And there's actually

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iPhone: the byproduct is used for again, back to our original, my original day. One resource of insulation. And now we've tested it with aggregates and aggregates with Lafarge. Which and and they're accepting this material as an additive as well.

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iPhone: So now that waste.

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iPhone: we're in the the front line of trying to make it a commodity

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iPhone: where? So we're now, we're at a point where full recycling is.

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iPhone: We could recycle everything.

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iPhone: There is no such thing as waste in our company.

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iPhone: Actual, our first front line defense, right? Right? Our first, or the method that we do it as a front line. First line of defense is what is recycling right, and we pay for your cycling, and then everything else left over. George is is only like 10%. 90% of the things that we're selling out right now are recyclable.

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iPhone: And the stuff that's left over, we're processing it through our technology here and recycling it as well.

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iPhone: So yes, so that was my rent. No, that's a good rant. I know this is the first time I've actually dial deep into

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George Panayi: yeah recycling. And and then, you know, wondering like, what happens after the process, you know.

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George Panayi: my condo.

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George Panayi: we have a waste company that takes their garbage and our our recycling. And I was. you know, every every week I'm sort through everything for my recycling, and then I see them the other day. Just throw it all in the same thing as the garbage. So it was like, Okay, so

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George Panayi: this is all going to waste. This is not recycling.

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George Panayi: are there any exciting upcoming projects or collaborations with Ethsole recycling that you can share with us?

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iPhone: There are many, my friend. There are many, but there's so many ndes involved. And

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iPhone: as you know.

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iPhone: the waste companies were a drop in the bucket in the bowl industry right as a whole like a waste industry

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iPhone: and recycling industry. We're dropping the bucket.

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and if I divulge em any information like they are, waste companies are chomping at the fifth to step on an like us.

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George Panayi: Yes, you know. So it's it's hard I would love to, you know, and the the the leaps and bounds that we're taking in our company are amazing. And I, it's just something that it's to share.

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iPhone: But we're just not. We're not at that point where

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iPhone: we're not let's say minted yet, you know.

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George Panayi: you know. So to speak. Yeah, you you gotta keep your next move quiet. And you know, it's gonna be. This is pretty cool. II really think that I've heard that in for what with other recycling companies around the world that you can actually use some of the

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George Panayi: material to build roads. And and you know, parts of houses. And

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George Panayi: it's incredible, right? I mean, here in Canada. I don't think we have like, I've never heard of that.

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iPhone: Yeah, no. So Le, let me, if it's a light to the to build the road. So we're part of that project. So when they issued

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iPhone: that initiative out of Dubai, so as an initiative, Dubai, where they stated to the recyclers around the world that we're looking for scrap, PET. Bottles. Essentially and then, if you look at a bottle, it's very hard to recycle, because there's labels on it. The cap itself is a different material than the bottle itself, like the cap, is PP, typically, and the bottle itself is pet, typically and tho those 2 types of plastic don't mix together, and for somebody to unscrew and take off the caps.

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iPhone: Very unlikely. But Dubai came with a an initiative, saying, Hey, we could take the whole bottle as a PPT. Mix. It doesn't matter. Label on off does not matter. And then we're like, Okay, how right, like we've been struggling with this in North America forever.

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iPhone: It's like, you know, this has been like our cancer. We're just putting it in our ground and letting all the the chemical seep out into our lands. And you know it's it's bad. So we asked them, how like, okay, so you want all this. Pt, but what are you doing right? And they they said exactly that they it's it's going into our asphalt and what we know, cause it's so hot in Dubai. The Pt. Bottles are actually

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iPhone: a heat resistance like, so it they're more durable in the heat during the like when it gets like 50 Celsius in Dubai that it doesn't. It's more durable for them. It it makes the asphalt stronger.

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iPhone: and it resisted heat. So it was, and we ended up sending them 100 tons of PT. Bottles, all in containers, and they used that during that time, and and a hundred tons is equivalent to let me tell you how many

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trees really quickly hear, my friend?

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George Panayi: Now.

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iPhone: yeah, so a hundred tons would be 1.2 million trees.

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iPhone: That's right?

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George Panayi: That's my point. Yeah, yes. So

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iPhone: yeah. So it's not really a if you look at recycling, it's not a

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iPhone: a solution for Canada like, hey, let's let's we have all this. What do we do in Canada? No, there, there's solutions around the world. There are people, remember, climate change is a worldly

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iPhone: problem, right? It's not a problem that's just for us.

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And

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iPhone: so that's why we do our research right. We we connect with the world wide connections and and cause if we don't have a resource, somebody maybe have a resource. Right? The world is huge and and over here we're doing. We're banning single use. Plastics right? And a lot of the ban

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iPhone: items are recyclable are recyclable. And again, the lobbyists and all that are major waste companies because they're going. Our politics

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iPhone: missions are going to waste companies and asking them, What can you do with this type of waste? And they go away. We can't do anything with it.

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iPhone: And meanwhile a recycling company can like all those plastic bags and all that stuff that got banned. We recycle currently it's LDPE, we recycle it.

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iPhone: And and those bags currently become garbage bags, and and we recycle them. And the reason we're still recycling them, because, remember, we're a import country. A lot of the the bags is Lt. PE. Is the actual material, and that LDPE. Material is used for other things as well. Right like shrink, wrap

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iPhone: film. In general, your your zip blog, that's all bags, that's all. Single use plastics quote unquote.

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iPhone: But in the in the problem is because we're an import country. We're always gonna have that plastic

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iPhone: right? We're not because in the world it's not banned. It's just banned in Canada.

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iPhone: So that problem will always be here. The Banning was some sort of I don't know what the logic was behind it, but of course the lobby side of thing has to be a waste consultant because they can't do anything with it but recycling companies can

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iPhone: right

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so there's a lot of

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iPhone: misconceptions there, that, you know, we're trying to work through as well.

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iPhone: but yeah, hopefully, we could get loud enough with outlets like yours, and we could let the politicians know, hey? When there's a problem there's a there's a solution may be lying with a recycling company and letting people know that waste and recycling are 2 separate industries

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George Panayi: and stop consulting with waste companies for the solution for recyclables. Yeah, it sounds like you guys are making a very positive impact. And I'm very happy to hear that it makes me for once believe in something's going on right positive and driven forward, and the people behind soul recycling like you are very passionate. Finally,

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George Panayi: what advice do you have for individuals or businesses looking to enhance their commitment to sustainability and make it a positive impact on their environment.

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iPhone: Yeah, that's a good question. Let's say we live in a perfect world, our perfect world, in in the aspect of waste, in a second right? Perfect world would be

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iPhone: use

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iPhone: items that are reusable. Right? We're in a disposable world, right? Your shavers are disposable, everything's disposable. You go through drive throughs. It's one use.

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iPhone: Try to demands like, when you go through the drive through. Use your own thermos right? And and a lot of people do.

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iPhone: But we need to change. Once we change the mindset of the common consumer to a reuse like the milkman. Theory, right where back in the day, the milkman used to come and pick up your your class and refill them, and that's what we have to do

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iPhone: right. The the disposable economy, this, this whole wave has to change. and we're at the tipping point right? So that common consumer, instead of using the water bottle.

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iPhone: use a refillable bottle.

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iPhone: use it as much as you can, and hopefully it's glass or metal. Right? Plastics are are recyclable only to a certain point. Right? We can only recycle plastics to a certain time, like, I think, 8 or 10 times, and after that it is waste.

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iPhone: So that's the the in for recycling waste. That would be the ideal. That'd be the perfect world.

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George Panayi: Simmer. This has been great. Yes, simmer from soul recycling. And just what? Guess what Psyche to you? Because that was not the last question. Meet me for coffee. We brew conversations

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George Panayi: with coffee and great people, and we

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George Panayi: dive deep into what's going on with them, and get to know them as well. So

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George Panayi: in Seinfeld, if you're a seinfeld fan Kramer was making a coffee table book about

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George Panayi: celebrities, coffee tables, and I guess I should probably start

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George Panayi: writing my book on what people on my show drink in their coffee, or how they take their coffee. Do you drink coffee, simmer.

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iPhone: drink it as we speak. My friend. Beautiful! How do you take it?

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iPhone: Black, fantastic cheers to you. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. George is a pleasure.

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George Panayi: Alright, man was good.