1. Spare Filter: It's always a good idea to have a spare filter for your drinking water systems (similarly, a couple of spare air filters for home heating equipment would be handy).

In many rural communities or in the fringe of large cities in southern Ontario where homeowners with no city water connection have to produce their own drinking water from wells or lakes. It's a good practice to keep a spare filter around just in case the filters got clogged up. If the water in the homes taste funny (or fishy, as some kid put it) it would be time to take a quick look at the filter and change it.

The same thing would apply to a communal system, e.g. a small northern FN community. A spare filter and a spare set of critical components would be handy to have around, especially if the components are heavy and bulky.

2. Recycling of plastic bottles:

Just came across the link below which talks about the value of recycled plastic pellets. Perhaps, one way to get rid of the plastic bottles Marten Falls landfills is to collect them, chop them up (or squish them) using some simple machines to reduce the bulk, store them for shipping by trucks when the winter roads are available to minimize the shipping cost.

There is no need to transport this by plane in a hurry, unless the plane going back to Thunder Bay is empty (Note: A Chinese lady was/is using empty cargo ships, at the cost of practically nothing, to carry waste paper from North America back to China for recycling... and sell the recycled products, e.g. corrugated packing boards, right back to North America...She's a billionaire).

This plastic recycling operation for a small cummunity may not make any money, and could end up with a loss, but at least the environmental problem in the landfills due to plastic bottles would be solved. Regardless of the profit/loss, this activity could be included in the operating budget of the community, and government grants could be applied to fund this "recycling operation". In fact, the empty plastic bottles don't have to be thrown in the landfill. They could be brought to a collection depot to be squished down (one depot would be good enough for a small community).

In some poor countries, people are collecting plastic bags, plastic bottles along roads and rivers and sell them to recycling depots. It's hard work but apparently they could make some reasonable living from the collection of plastic waste.

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/04/25/plastic-bottle-recycling-recycled-pet-price-increases/

goldhunter