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Grizzly-proof bins were Olympic metal winner Photo courtesy SouthGrow Regional Initiative
There’s no Olympic Games medal category for trash bins, but if they had one for metal, Dennis Neufeldt would be a clear winner. Spectators who attended probably didn’t know it, but the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Whistler, B.C., were much safer because of Haul-All Equipment Systems, based in Lethbridge, Alberta. Haul-All is North America’s leading producer of bear-proof trash bins, which can be seen in national parks in western North America (and were featured in The Marketplace back in 2001). By keeping edible litter out of ursine paws, they’re doing people and animals a favor, whether the bears know it or not. Once bears develop a taste for leftover lunch, they keep coming back for more and can become a danger to humans and ultimately to themselves. That’s why wildlife officials say, “A fed bear is a dead bear.” A hidden latch on Haul-All bins makes them inaccessible to black bears, which have curved front paws that can’t trip the lever. Some grizzly bears, however, need special attention. They have less curvature in their claws and can find their way into places that black bears can’t. So some of the container lids had to be modified to keep out all bears. Neufeldt took on the challenge of coming up with a special bin that would keep grizzlies out. He did it in record time, too. He received the contract only a few weeks before the games opened back in February of 2010. By the time patrons showed up, his obelisk-shaped trash bins could The Marketplace May June 2011
see if he could spot one during the ceremonies, “but there were too many people in the way.” Haul-All makes 200 different products, and is an industry leader in the production of waste containment, collection and transfer systems. Besides seeing its animal-proof trash bins in national parks, you may have seen its recycling bins and side-loading No free bear lunch: Dennis Neufeldt collection vehicles in with his Winter Olympics entry. your neighborhood, be seen throughout the town anything a community needs of Whistler. for “a cleaner tomorrow.” It The bins are made of stainless sells widely throughout the steel and contain two doors (gar- United States, as well as to bage and recyclables). Neufeldt South America. The company kept watching the television to also makes on-site heaters for
Nutrition tagged as culprit in “hidden hunger” crisis women in India and two-fifths of those in Indonesia are anaemic from lack of sufficient iron in their diets. In Malawi, a third of the people do not get enough calories, but twice that number lack vitamin A. The long-term social damage is pronounced. The “hidden hunger” of micronutrient deficiencies “harms even more people and inflicts lasting damage,” the magazine says. Children suffer more diseases (blindness, organ failure, etc.) and don’t perform well in school. Ill-nourished adults earn less and probably die earlier. “Famines lay waste to countries; bad diets cripple them silently.” The magazine says govern-
You don’t have to look far to know there’s a food crisis afoot. More people are going hungry as they have to use more of their scarce resources to get the daily calories they need. A common policy response is to ramp up food distribution, but that often comes in inadequate forms like more bread and rice. Some authorities are saying the bigger issue for the poor is nutrition. Even people who are managing to get enough food on the table may not be getting enough micronutrients. Diseases from malnutrition are “stunningly widespread,” according to a recent world health report in The Economist. It says more than half the 22
Haul-All’s story was featured in a Marketplace cover story in 2001. the construction industry. Haul-All’s Olympic performance was recently featured in SouthGrown Productivity, a publication of Alberta’s SouthGrow Regional Initiative. The magazine also drew attention to Haul-All’s workplace diversity, noting that its 100 employees come from 16 different countries and have earned it an Immigration Achievement Award. “On the factory floor, Haul-All is a mini-United Nations,” the magazine said. ◆ ment food programs often do little to get the proper micronutrients (iron, zinc, iodine, vitamin A) to the people who need them. It notes that better success has been achieved by market garden programs that encourage the growth of vegetables. It proposes “little interventions” like adding iodine to salt and distributing vitamin A supplements. The benefits of such interventions — preservation from fatal diseases, higher lifetime earnings — “massively outweigh” their relatively tiny costs. “Top-down efforts fail. But governments, companies and international institutions can do good by stealth,” such as by growing biofortified crops with extra vitamins bred into them. Education and “policy nudges” can do more good than the common default of subsidizing the price of rice, it says. ◆
