THE CITY’S test self-serve recycling depot is already proving to be a popular addition to local efforts at being greener.
Not even a week after a 30-yard container was put out for paper products, cardboard and plastics, it was nearly full and being delivered to Do Your Part in Thornhill for processing.
City official Tara Irwin, who organized the setting up of the depot on the old Terrace Co-op property, was surprised at the response given the short period of time the depot was open.
“I was at Do Your Part when it was brought in and it was a good load,” she said after visiting the business Nov. 24 to watch material being unloaded.
The 30-yard container is divided into sections for cardboard, paper products and plastics.
There are another two smaller containers for organics and an open blue container for metals and tin cans.
Geier Waste is delivering recyclable material to Do Your Part and the organics to a spot behind the city’s works yard. The metals bin belongs to Bold Salvage.
The city is budgeting $15,000 to run the depot for six months after which time it’ll evaluate the results of trying to keep as much material as possible out of its landfill.
Irwin did say she was happy those using the depot are, for the most part, placing material in the right slots.
Kasey Lewis from Do Your Part also said she was surprised by the amount of material.
“It was nearly full and that’s good, given the weather,” she said.
Lewis did ask that people should remember to wash out their containers and noted that the depot cannot take plastic lids of containers.
“All in all it wasn’t bad,” she said of the first container delivered to her business.
Northwest Community College geography students are helping out with the test project by distributing recycling questionnaires and by helping with organics taken to the city works yard.
Liz Horner, one of two students checking out the depot Nov. 24, said the response to the questionnaires has been good.
“There’s quite a lot of interest from the responses we’re getting,” she said.
A second student, Shelby Taphouse, expects use of the depot to increase in better weather.
“But given the weather, it’s quite popular already,” she said.
Both students said Thornhill residents would probably appreciate a depot location in their community as well.
A test curbside recycling effort a year ago proved less than popular, helping spur the move toward testing a self-serve depot instead.
More information is available on the City of Terrace website, http://www.terrace.ca/news/introducing_the_community_recycling_depot.