Bill Hamilton

When Bill Hamilton, a sales rep with Sutton Group – Incentive Realty in Barrie, Ont. filled in his application to be one of 12,000 Olympic torchbearers across Canada, he pledged to help improve the environment by starting a battery and ink cartridge collection program at his office.

Hamilton says he is still reliving his torch experience “when I am invited to bring my Olympic Torch to various groups including school children, Cubs, Beavers, Brownies and Sparks. The kids are so excited and have lots of questions. They share their aspirations and national pride. I hope that the Olympic spirit inspires them to reach for their goals.”

The battery collection program began in November. Hamilton takes the toner printer cartridges to a local school, which receives funds from a recycling rebate program.  The small effort is worthwhile since cartridges require several litres of petroleum to produce and take many hundreds of years to decompose.  Reusing or recycling them is cost effective and environmentally friendly.  Hamilton takes batteries he collects to the City of Barrie Hazardous Waste Disposal Depot.

“I realized what one family could collect just from our own efforts at home over the years and thought that I should bring that initiative to the workplace. With such a large office of over 140 sales agents and support staff, I wanted to give everyone an easy option for safe disposal rather than taking the convenient route of pitching their batteries and cartridges into the garbage pail.”