Yorkton's SARCAN depot wins award

Yorkton’s SARCAN depot has won a customer service award. The depot took home the award for Cleanliness for an extra-large depot.

Jeanifer Moreira, manager of Yorkton’s depot, says that the staff is proud of the work they do keeping the depot clean for customers, and the recognition that comes with the award is encouragement for the staff.

“The staff, they are so proud of what they do, and they work really hard to keep the depot clean for the customers when they come in.”

The extra-large depot recycles nine million containers per year. Moreira knows that it’s difficult to keep a depot of any size clean. John Denysek, regional manager of the Saskatchewan Abilities Council in Yorkton, notes that it’s a business that has unique challenges when it comes to cleanliness.

“You have to appreciate to keep a SARCAN depot clean, the bottles that come in don’t always have their contents empty. It’s spilling on the floor, it’s spilling on the trays, the customers walk in with muddy shoes. The staff is very good at getting out that and ensuring the floor is as clean as possible. It’s about the overall appearance, but it’s a safety precaution too, if you have wet or sticky floors it increases the chances of falls or that kind of thing.”

Cleaning is constant, Moreira says, whether it’s cleaning the floors, cleaning the trays between customers, quickly moving particularly fragrant orders into the back, and working constantly to clean the depot. There is also an hour of training every Friday at noon to keep improving. 

“We are always looking to improve what we are doing. As an example, customers have to remove their caps before they come, but we also have containers so they can recycle their caps. If they have water or leftovers, they have a container so they can dump those leftovers. If everything changes, then we accommodate those changes to make it better for customers.”