Residential curbside recycling is coming to Melfort.
The city’s council voted to extend its waste disposal contract with Greenland Waste to 2026 at its Feb. 12 meeting, while adding curbside recycling to the agreement.
The service is expected to start in April. It will be paid by residents, who will see waste collection costs increase from $10.50 to $13.05 per month. They cannot opt out of curbside recycling.
“If you look around the entire [region] and a good portion of the province, everyone is doing that now,” said Coun. Doug Terry, the works and utilities chair.
Tisdale, Nipawin and Carrot River have had curbside recycling for years.
“Melfort’s been a little later getting into it because of the contracts that we’ve had, so we’ve had the luxury of time to investigate it to see what would be the best component to follow,” Terry said.
One of those contracts is with PLUS Industries, which helps adults with intellectual challenges. It collects recycling materials by asking residents to drop them off at collection points around the city. The recycling program provides more than 20 jobs for those participating.
PLUS Industries will still be an official recycler for Melfort, filling in the gaps left by Greenland Waste. Greenland’s curbside recycling will only cover residential clients, leaving the city’s commercial sector open for PLUS. There’s also some items that won’t be able to be recycled in the blue bins that PLUS will be able to, most notably glass.
Terry said Melfort citizens will now have more options for recycling.
“Residents can still take their recyclables over to PLUS if they so wish or they can use the blue bin.”
The councillor said the goal of going to curbside recycling is to reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill, increasing its lifespan. He told council earlier that when looking at what has happened in other communities, Melfort has the potential to reduce its garbage by 40 per cent.
The blue bins that will be used to collect the recycling will be delivered before the service starts. As well as glass, items like food waste, styrofoam, chip bags, coat hangers, old pots and pans, aerosol cans, foil, batteries and old electronics cannot be put into the bins.
