Sundre's council recently discussed some options to mitigate ongoing misuse of the municipality's recycling centre.
Elected officials heard during the June 5 workshop a report prepared by town staff, including operations manager Jim Hall, who presented the findings.
The report outlined the issue of some commercial businesses as well as farm operations using the facility, which is designed specifically for residential use only. That results in the containers ó namely the cardboard and mixed single stream bins ó being filled up virtually overnight or within a day or two after they've been emptied, he said.
Perhaps more problematically, there have also periodically been environmental concerns created by people who are improperly disposing of hazardous waste such as used oil containers as well as other toxic products and electronics, he said.
"Signage on each bin clearly states not to recycle these items at the facility."
Although there has been some success with regards to identifying and contacting some of the responsible individuals and to inform them of the consequences, the issue continues to persist. And when bins fill up, many users simply end up discarding recyclables on the ground, leaving a large mess of litter that the town's employees then have to clean up and haul over to the waste transfer site, he said.
"Everybody wants the opportunity to divert waste from the landfill," said Mayor Terry Leslie during a Tuesday, June 6 phone interview.
The catch, he told the Round Up, is that a small number of people are dropping off toxic chemicals, environmentally hazardous products as well as other inappropriate items such as appliances or furniture that do not belong at the recycling centre.
"The fact that it's open 24-7 leaves everybody with the shared responsibility to look after things," the mayor said, adding some people have unfortunately not taken that responsibility seriously enough, which in turn creates an additional cost burden for taxpayers who essentially end up paying for town employees to deal with messes they should not have to worry about to begin with.
Unfortunately, the surveillance cameras that were installed to monitor the site have not proven to be as effective as initially hoped, he said.
Hence the need to discuss options to mitigate the recycling centre's misuse.
Some of the ideas proposed include the following: restricting hours, which would mean fencing off the site; increased surveillance with improved cameras; and additional enforcement. However, these measures are all cost-prohibitive unless an updated partnership agreement with Mountain View County can be reached, said Leslie.
A last resort would simply be to shut the recycling centre down and redirect people to use the waste transfer station just east of Sundre, but "nobody wants to close it," he said.
"If that area isn't there, that stuff ends up in ditches."
Sundre's council planned to meet and collaborate with county officials to arrive at a suitable shared funding solution. After all, not only are rural residents welcome to use the site, but they also represent a majority of the centre's users, he said.
"We'll try to sort that out with Mountain View County," the mayor said, expressing confidence that common ground will be reached.
