THE CITY’S test recycling depot has become so popular the city has increased the number of times material is picked up.
From one delivery a week to Do Your Part in Thornhill for processing, Geier Waste is now taking a 30-yard container of cardboard, plastics and paper three times a week.
“That’s Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings,” says city official Tara Irwin, who is in charge of the depot located on the old Co-op property.
The self-serve depot was first opened Nov. 18.
The 30-yard container has different sections for cardboard, plastics and paper and there are two smaller containers for organics and one for metals.
Material in the metals bin is bound for Bold Salvage which, with Geier Waste and Do Your Park, has signed on for the depot’s test six-month period.
Irwin says she’s happy with the response to the test depot.
“I would say my original projections have been surpassed much faster than expected,” she said.
But she is asking larger businesses to stop taking their cardboard to the depot because they are not technically paying for the service.
While residents pay the city a fee for garbage pickup and, by extension, for the depot, businesses pay private haulers to take away their refuse.
“We’re not going to get overly concerned about a smaller business who may use this occasionally, but when we see a big load of commercial cardboard, that’s different,” said Irwin.
“What we have then are residential taxpayers paying for the disposal of cardboard from businesses.”
Irwin did say a more comprehensive recycling program down the road might be able to handle commercial recycling.
She’s also asking people dropping off organics in the two bins to avoid mixing in other material. “We’ve noticed contamination, things like plastics,” said Irwin.
The organics are to be taken to a location behind the city’s public works building on Graham St.
There’s good news for recyclers from Bold Salvage because it doesn’t need labels peeled off tin cans.
“We thought they did, but they don’t. I’ve ordered new stickers to that effect. But cans will still need to be washed out,” said Irwin.
Aside from the environmental aspect to recycling, there’s also a practical part because the city wants to reduce the amount of refuse it will haul to a planned new landfill site at Forceman Ridge near Onion Lake.