Changes to Yorkton's glass recycling

YORKTON – On August 8, at the city's Council Meeting, Councillors voted unanimously in favour of an agreement with SARCAN effective September 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, to receive, process and recycle all household glass for the City of Yorkton.

"Changes in recycling markets are bringing changes in the way the City of Yorkton’s glass recycling process will operate in the future," said Lyndon Hicks, Solid Waste and Environmental Programs Manager for the City of Yorkton during his presentation to Council, adding, "currently the city’s glass recycling occurs at RecyclAbility Enterprises on Ball Road where residents are able to drop off clear and colored household glass free of charge – SaskAbilities – then, has then been returning the glass to SARCAN for downstream processing and recycling at no charge from SARCAN."

"Last year ending March 31, 2022 almost 80,000 lbs. of household glass was recycled through this process in Yorkton – SARCAN Recycling has notified us that they are no longer able to accept this glass from the SaskAbilities sorting facility," said Hicks.

"SARCAN Recycling has recently completed a pilot testing program for recycling household
glass with the [City] of Saskatoon and the [City] of Regina, said Hicks, noting public participation in these pilot projects over the last three years have been excellent in both communities.

"Citizens have returned their clear and coloured household glass containers to SARCAN depots in the municipalities and SARCAN has collected and recycled over 300 tonnes of glass in the last three years," said Hicks.

Hicks said that in 2021, Saskatoon residents returned 1.018 lbs. of household glass, per person, to the Saskatoon depots.

"Most importantly, all of the material dropped off at these depots has been diverted from landfill and effectively recycled," said Hicks, adding, "as a result of this successful pilot project, SARCAN Recycling has received authorization from the Ministry of Environment to extend their household glass recycling program opportunities to communities across the province where SARCAN Recycling depots exist."

"The Yorkton depot is operated by the local branch of SaskAbilities who has an agreement with
SARCAN where they currently recycle beverage containers, paint and electronics," said Hicks, adding, "as part of this initiative – the roll out across the province – SARCAN is no longer able to accept household glass from municipal operations, programs or citizens without remuneration from the municipalities or regional waste authorities – there is a cost to collect, sort, transport and process the glass before shipping it to downstream markets in Saskatchewan and Alberta."

"For everybody's interest – to note – the clear glass is shipped to a company in Moose Jaw where it is incorporated into roadside paint and the coloured glass is shipped to a company in Edmonton where it is incorporated into insulation," said Hicks.

"SARCAN has offered to take over this service for Yorkton under the following details: Yorkton will be responsible to pay SARCAN Recycling for the tonnes of glass recycled as per the service agreement rate of 15.97 cents per lb. for the 2022/23 fiscal year ending March 31, 2023 plus freight. Freight for Yorkton is estimated to be 3.97 cents per lb. for a total of $.1994/lb," detailed the report.  

"By working with SARCAN on this endeavor, we will continue to recycle glass at the SARCAN Recycling Depot," said Hicks.