♻️ Recycle ♻️ Update ♻️

Note: This is a bit of a long update as it includes an explanation of how the Town’s recycling program operates. 

Use of the public and commercial compactors continue to operate on a 24/7 basis. 

A Request for Tender is planned to be issued the first week of July for the construction of a new recycle depot. 
Once a new recycle depot is built, curbside collection of recyclables will resume. 

It should be noted, when the compacted bins are full, the fully compacted bins need to changed out and an empty bin is then connected to the compactor. Our contractor (GFL) is notified that the bins need to be swapped and then they come as soon as they are able to to swap the bins. During this wait, the recycle compactor will be temporarily closed with barricades as the compactors cannot take any more materials.
Also, on occasion, the public compactor jams up for a variety of reasons - usually due to large boxes that aren’t broken down. And there are occasional mechanical and electrical issues. When these unplanned issues occur, the Town will temporarily close the recycle compactor with barricades until the issues are resolved. 

Background:
Prior to the recycle depot fire, the Town’s recycle program operated as follows:
The public facing recycle compactor was available on a 24/7 basis to the public for dropping off recyclables. This recycle compactor would be occasionally closed with barricades if there were mechanical or electrical issues with the compactor or if the bin was full and was waiting to be swapped out. 

In addition to this, the Town has a contract with GFL (formerly Asselin’s) to collect both garbage and recyclables from curbside. Garbage is normally collected weekly in the morning and landfilled, in accordance with the Area 1-5 collection schedules. Recyclables are normally collected biweekly in the afternoon in accordance with the Area 1-5 collection schedules and taken to the recycle depot (the building that burnt down).

When recyclables are collected curbside by GFL, their collection truck would fill up. Once full, GFL would drive to the recycle depot (the one that burnt down) and dump the recyclables in the building. And this process would continue until all of the recyclables were collected for the day. 

Further to this, businesses (such as furniture and appliance stores, business supply stores, etc) could deliver their recyclables directly to the recycle depot (the one that burnt down). 

Once a sufficient amount of recyclables were collected in the recycle building (the one that burnt down), the Town would then use a Wheel Loader to transfer the recyclables in the recycle depot to the commercial recycle compactor until the bin was full of compacted recyclables. 

Once two bins were full (typically one public bin and one commercial bin), the Town’s recycle processing contractor, Emterra, would send a truck from Winnipeg and return two empty bins and then take the two fully compacted bins to their recycling processing facility in Winnipeg. This was done on roughly a weekly basis. 

It should be noted that both GFL (formerly Asselin’s) and Emterra are contracted works to the Town (via the tendering process) and have worked with the Town for many years and continue to work with the Town. 

Because there is no recycle depot for GFL to dump the curbside collected recyclables into, the Town cannot resume curbside collection. Once the recycle depot is rebuilt, curbside collection will resume. 
The GFL trucks are not able to dump recyclables directly into the commercial compactor, hence the need for the recycle depot. 
If the recyclables collected by GFL were simply dumped on the remaining foundation from the burnt building, the materials would blow all over, and if rained on, would make the paper based recyclables very difficult to handle. 

It is important to note that despite the recycle depot fire and the suspension of curbside collection, no contracts have been cancelled and no staff have been laid off or terminated. None of the recyclables collected in the compactors are being sent to the landfill. 100% of the collected recyclables are going to the Emterra processing facility in Winnipeg. 

The Town is now transferring two fully compacted bins to the Emterra recycle processing facility in Winnipeg approximately every 10 days instead of every 7 days. 
In the meantime, the public compactor will remain available to residents on 6th Street West, located between Wright Avenue and Webster Avenue.
Hopefully, this update helps resident’s understand why curbside collection of recyclables has not yet resumed. 

Thank you for your patience as the Town works towards rebuilding the Recycle Depot and then resumption of curbside collection of recyclables.

Craig Miller, Manager of Operations and Facilities