recycling

Atikokan is keeping its recycling depot open.

Town council is accepting a deal with Circular Materials, the organization now in charge of handling provincial recycling programs.

Atikokan will receive $2,500 each month to offset operational costs.

Chief Administrative Officer Jason Young says the town will incur costs if more than 11 tonnes of material is collected.

“So we’re encouraging residents to put the recycling at their curbside versus taking it out to the landfill because the landfill is for those residents who don’t have that service, as well as the industrial, commercial and institutional recycling,” says Young.

A similar deal struck earlier this year allowed Fort Frances to keep its recycling depot open.

Young says they are not in conflict with GFL, which has been contracted by Circular for residential curbside pickup.

He says the province determined that only residential programs would be transferred, forcing businesses, companies and others to handle their own recycling.

“The town has made a decision to continue with pickup for the industrial, commercial, and institutional businesses to effectively reduce the amount of in landfills or refuse going into our landfills,” says Young.

“We still believe it’s a good program that we want to support, and it’s nice that they said we can get a little bit of revenue from operating the depot as well.”

Some municipalities are lobbying the province for changes that allow recycling from the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors to be handled by Circular.