Without absolutely not wanting to wish the summer away, we have been busy booking a variety of happenings for the weeks and months ahead. A photo shoot in late July and a visit to our recycling facility quickly thereafter; in mid-August, we'll have an outdoor booth at the CNE (during their Green Day) as well as exhibit at the in-house trade show of one of our retail partners, The Source by Circuit City; our 10th Anniversary celebration is booked for September 17th; there'll be events out west and in Quebec in October and then the gear-up for our 25+ city winter tour with the Old Timers' Hockey events.

And intermingled with these milestone moments is the daily happenings to "get those filled collection boxes in as well as new ones out."

June came in well: over 18,000 kilograms collected which is an increase of +18% versus June '06. And year-to-date, we are tracking +9.4% versus year ago. This year's total to-date is just slightly under what we were able to collect during the entire year of 2003! I can still remember 2003 and to almost surpass the overall year halfway through this one is really something great.

So we continue to move forward.

While watching the Live Earth event yesterday, it was fun to hear the rallying cry of "Answer the Call". We have been using the phrase: Answer the Call2Recycle since our program was expanded to include cell phone recycling in 2002. It is probably the highest form of a complement when others pick up on similar phrases to advance "the" cause. Many voices work much better. And goodness knows that we all still have a lot of work to do to.

And so we move into a new week. We are expecting a big shipment in a couple of days which will help boost our numbers for July ... and we'll be on the search for more.

By the end of this week, another truck will be filled and ready for the trip south of the border to Inmetco where the collection boxes and contents will meet their recycling destiny.

You need an awful lot of used rechargeable batteries and cell phones to fill one of these trucks. A couple of years ago, we might have had one or two trips a year. Now we are making many more of them annually.

We’ve crossed the million-kilogram-collection point months ago and are well underway in the planning for our tenth anniversary celebrations this September.

And so, as the door closes and the truck makes its way down the road, we have the chance to stop for a moment to reflect on the many people and organizations who have voluntarily banded together to make our recycling program both possible as well as a very real and successful reality … and say “thanks for making a difference”.