Changes are coming to how the City of Yorkton handles its recycling. After the recycling survey, which collected over 1,000 responses from city residents, the city has decided to make some adjustments to the recycling program for the new year.
Starting on Jan. 15, the day when many people in the city take their recycling out to the curb will be changing to the same day as garbage pickup. There were a couple reasons behind the change, explains JeanAnne Teliske, landfill and waste manager for the City of Yorkton.
The main reason was to increase engagement in the program, as moving to same day pickup has lead to increased usage of the program in other jurisdictions that made the change. Shifting it back one day in some neighborhoods also avoids many statutory holidays, meaning there will be fewer weeks when recycling pickup is not available for a week due to holidays.
It will also be easier to participate in the program thanks to a phone app and website update being launched in mid-January. Called Recycle Coach, the app will allow people to quickly see when their recycling and garbage pickup are happening. It will also allow residents to search specific items to see if they can be recycled through the curbside system or if it might need to be taken to a specific location.
鈥淎s we saw in the survey, there is some of that education that we need to do about proper recycling. We get lots of calls about where do I take this? Can I dispose of this in my garbage? Where do I put this? That tool provides education and awareness,鈥� said Teliske.
One thing that won鈥檛 be changing will be way garbage is collected, as recycling will continue to use the clear blue bags for pickup. While some residents wanted to move to a bin as opposed to the bags, Yorkton鈥檚 program uses the bags because it facilitates the partnership between the city, the Prairie Harvest Employment Program (PHEP) and SaskAbilities鈥� RecyclAbility. Changing to bins would mean that the current partnerships wouldn鈥檛 work, which would be more expensive for the city and eliminate some of the employment opportunities provided by the partnership. The Prairie Harvest Employment Program provides employment for 40 at-risk youth in Yorkton.
鈥淚f we were to go the blue cart system, it would eliminate Prairie Harvest who currently collect our recycling through the blue bag system... Both [SaskAbilities and Prairie Harvest] are amazing at what they do so we want to continue those relationships,鈥� said Teliske.
Teliske also said another advantage to the bags, as opposed to bins, is there is less contamination, which means there are fewer loads that can no longer be recycled thanks to having garbage contaminating the load.
鈥淟ess contamination from garbage occurs in the blue, transparent bags. People are less likely to put it in blue bags if you can see it, while if you have a blue cart you might not think twice about throwing a piece of garbage in there,鈥� said Teliske.
The Prairie Harvest Employment Program will get an update of its own. The bus currently used will be retired, replaced by a truck and trailer. Stefan Bymak with PHEP said the decision to upgrade comes from a desire to keep costs down. Most sorting will now happen at the PHEP shop rather than on the bus itself, which keeps everyone warmer in the winter as well.
鈥淭hose buses, because we were getting them already worn out, the maintenance costs were pretty high.
鈥淭he truck and trailer, we believe that the maintenance costs will go down... We feel we can keep the costs the same as they are now.鈥�
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