A St. Albert resident says she’s angry to have discovered she can no longer take recyclables from the financial company she works for to the city’s recycling depot.
For years, Darlene Shelemey would take her unwanted cardboard boxes and papers to the Mike Mitchell Recycling Depot. She would often make the trip once a week, but earlier this month, found out the depot was for residential use only, not businesses.
“I was just ticked off,” she said. “They took it away and they didn’t offer (other options). This has been my responsibility for some years. (Did) the city just find out now that it’s not viable? What has changed? It just ticked me off.”
Olivia Kwok, the supervisor of the city’s waste and diversion programs, said the city has never offered commercial recycling at the depot, which opened in the 1990s and was originally named the Campbell Park recycling depot. She explained the depot is paid for through household utility fees, which is why residents are offered the service but not businesses.
“Businesses aren’t covering the cost to operate and maintain the depots,” she said. “In the past, they have come and dropped things off and so forth. What we’re seeing is utility ratepayers are covering the cost for all of these materials that are coming in. So, we’re just encouraging that it only be residential use only.”
The depot is staffed by two solid waste operators during operation hours where residents can dispose of accepted items like cardboard, newspaper and tin cans. While staff are responsible for a variety of duties including sorting, packaging and storage, residents are often left to their own devices when dropping off materials.
Kwok wasn’t able to say for certain how much material businesses were contributing to the recycling depot because it was only during the May 27 city council meeting she and her colleagues were given the green light to study what was coming in. The study will look at who is using the depot, including whether or not it is residents, businesses or visitors from other communities.
The city will also be gathering data during a pilot project which will see the depot's hours extended. At the end of May, council approved the $35,000 project to allow the recycling depot to be open seven days a week until September. Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. during weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the weekend. The depot will be open from Monday to Sunday starting on July 1 with the exception being on statutory holidays like Canada Day.
Shelemey said she spoke with Kwok who told her that the depot was for residential use only, but Shelemey felt another city-run option should be available like businesses paying an additional fee.
“If you want to continue coming here, it’s going to cost you X dollars a month,” she added. “Then I can consider it. There are just no options.”
Businesses looking to recycle are encouraged to arrange something with the private company that handles their garbage.
Last year, the city collected 371 tons of materials to be recycled at the depot, which was a slight increase from 2017. This was a small deviation from the downward trend the city has been seeing over the last few years. In 2014, 498 tons were collected, 451 in 2015 and 415 in 2016.
