Perhaps they should change the name of the city’s Large Junk Drop-Off Event to the City Mattress Round-Up.
Because according to Christian Benson, St. Albert’s solid waste program co-ordinator, that’s what most of the 225 people that visited the event at the Akinsdale Arena parking lot brought to toss away Saturday.
“Probably 80 per cent of what we collected was mattresses and the rest was furniture,” according to Benson.
Of the eight, 40-yard garbage bins the city sent to the landfill at the end of the six-hour event, Benson said half were full of mattresses and box springs.
“They take up a lot of room, too. We filled four of those bins just with mattresses.”
This is the second time the city has held the event, which lets residents drop off large items they no longer require for landfilling. The last event was held in October and saw some 400 people drop by with their junk.
Benson said Saturday was steady, noting there were fewer people, most likely because staff were only on-hand for six hours, where the October event was open for 10 hours.
The city has committed to holding two of the events now a year. Benson said there were still more numbers to crunch, but anticipated another large item drop-off would be scheduled for late October or early November.
“Those bins hold between two and four metric tonnes, so we want to see the final cost coming back,” Benson said.
Besides the eight bins of mattresses and furniture, residents also filled one 80-yard bin with metal — mostly appliances — that will be sent to General Recycling. The city will not receive any money for recycling the metal.
“The stuff we’re giving them is appliances and the rate isn’t incredibly high,” Benson said. “There’s no rental charge for the bin and they drop it off for free, so it’s more in-kind. If we did try to get a cut of it, it would be a very small amount.”
The purpose of the event, said Benson, is to make it easier for residents to get large, unwanted items out of their homes. The mattresses and “ugly furniture” typically aren’t in good enough shape for non-profit groups. It also saves residents the hassle of going to a landfill themselves and is cheaper than doing so. Those who attended had to use or purchase garbage tags to dispose of their items.
“It’s quite a bit cheaper than going to a landfill and allows people to get rid of things much more quickly and at a much lower cost.”
