It was a long time coming, but Estevan finally made the leap to a door-to-door recycling program in 2013.
After a couple of years worth of discussion and waiting on the Saskatchewan government to finalize plans for a province-wide program, council officially passed a multi-material recycling program at a meeting in June.
The program, which was rolled out to the city in the fall, allows residents to place all of their recycling in one large blue bin in contrast to other programs where items such as paper, glass and tin had to be sorted into three different containers.
As is often the case in Estevan, the move to recycling wasn't without some level of controversy. Even though the majority of residents were in favour of recycling, there was opposition to the news that bins would have to be placed in the front of homes for collection.
The public had the opportunity to express their concerns and complaints about recycling during an open house in May at the Estevan Leisure Centre. Although at times the meeting veered into theatre of the absurd, it was evident that the City had some legitimate issues to deal with such as busy streets where there was no room to place the bins.
Much of the controversy likely stemmed from the fact that along with the introduction of recycling, garbage collection would be moved from the back alleys to the front of homes. Since automated garbage collection was introduced in 2008, the subject has spurred intense debate and hostility, and news of the switch reignited that flame in many of the critics.
Undaunted, the City forged ahead, and in June passed a motion that cleared the way for curbside garbage collection and recycling.
Despite those early objections, the program seems to be going over well. Regens Disposal has been very happy with the participation and in a recent report to council said they had collected over 60,000 kilograms in recycled material in just October and November.
