Emterra’s Donation to Help Fight Cancer in Niagara Tops $119,900

Emterra’s Donation to Help Fight Cancer in Niagara Tops $119,900

April 22, 2014

NIAGARA, ON (April 22, 2014): In celebration of Earth Day, Emterra Group CEO, Emmie Leung, announced today that Emterra is donating $44,000 this year to help fight cancer in Niagara Region, bringing total donations to $119,900.

This is Emterra’s third year of donating under its Make Your Contribution at the Curb! TM fund raising challenge to the regional Walker Family Cancer Centre. Emterra is Niagara Region’s recycling, waste and organics collection contractor.

In 2012, Emterra pledged to donate up to $500,000 over seven years (2011-2018) to the cancer centre through the Niagara Heath System’s It’s Our Time fund raising endeavour.

The size of the donation each year is based on the amount Niagara residents recycle through their blue and grey recycling boxes. For every tonne recycled Emterra contributes $1 to the hospital fundraising campaign.

 “We’re really proud of the way Niagara residents have responded to the ‘Make Your Contribution’ challenge,” Leung said.  She noted that even with the weight of recyclables getting lighter because of the growing use of plastic packaging, Niagara residents in both single family and multi-family households consistently keep the annual number of tonnes at about 39,000. 

“Congratulations to Niagara! You have done an outstanding job and we encourage you to continue to find ways to recycle more. There’s room to grow the amount we donate,” she emphasized. Estimates are that about 12% of the recyclable materials in the residential waste stream are still going into garbage bags instead of blue and grey boxes.

OneFoundation for Niagara Health System (NHS) is the hospital foundation that fund-raises on behalf of the cancer centre and hospital sites of the Niagara Health System. Board Chair Mike Watt said the foundation is “grateful to have Emterra Group as a community partner supporting the growth of services for cancer care in Niagara.

“It is through the generosity of donors such as Emterra that we are able to give cancer patients the personal treatment they need close to home. Linking support for patient services to an environmental initiative like recycling is an innovative way to point out to people that we can make a difference to the quality of life in our communities in all kinds of ways. The simple act of recycling more leads to better health care for our family, friends and neighbours,” Mr. Watt added.

The Emterra “Make Your Contribution at the Curb! TMchallenge has gained recognition through the Recycling Council of Ontario’s Waste Minimization Awards. For two consecutive years it has earned a platinum and silver award respectively for Emterra and the Region of Niagara for its innovative approach to promoting greater awareness of the importance of recycling.    

Regional Chair Gary Burroughs applauded Emterra for the innovative, ‘made-in-Niagara’ recycling challenge.

“Emterra’s incredible support to the NHS through its “Make Your Contribution at the Curb!” challenge is not only helping Niagara become more environmentally sustainable, it’s also helping us to build a stronger health-care system and a healthier Niagara community,” said Chair Burroughs. “We’re proud to be a supporter of this program.”

Ms. Leung said Emterra’s industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) customers are also welcome to participate in the challenge by making a commitment to increase their recycling efforts. She said the potential for increasing the amount of recyclables diverted from landfill is significant, noting that “recycling in the workplace is typically not a priority but it should be.”

Ms. Leung said that the amount Emterra donates to the cancer centre fund comes from the company’s Community CareTM program. The donation is not part of the service provider’s collection fees but rather from the corporation’s own bottom line.

“It’s our way of contributing to the environment and social health and well-being in the communities we serve, live and work. We hope it will be an inspiration to other local businesses to step forward to do something positive for the environment. We have only one earth. We have to take care of it,” Leung said.

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Paulina Leung
VP of Corporate Strategy and Business Development
Emterra Group
905.336.9084, ext. 130
Paulina.Leung@emterra.ca