For the past two weeks, Park Terrace residents have been able to recycle in the comfort of their building. No more putting recyclables in their cars and driving to the recycling centre for them.
Park Terrace resident Cliff McDonald used to be the town's director of corporate services. After working on the town's recent single-stream recycling pilot project, he approached Park Terrace president Sam Jackson about having the condo building participate in the project.
“He approached me about having an experimental recycling bin so that we could see how people would respond,” said Jackson.
“Then, hopefully, there would be recycling bins all over town. They are starting here, but I think Cliff will say that people's responses have been pretty good.”
After the residents accepted, Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission delivered a blue Dumpster at the back of the building.
“For the people living here in Park Terrace, it's about as handy as it can get. People don't have to put stuff in their vehicle and go to the centres,” said Jackson.
The Dumpster was already full after two weeks, even though a Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission employee had gone into the Dumpster to compress the recyclables.
“It's a test. We need to do weights on this stuff so that we know what we are really getting ourselves into. Schedules will be set up as soon as we get more customers online,” said Don Reid, Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission CAO.
“Our employees are out there trying to drum up more businesses as it happens. We are hoping to turn this into a really good thing.”
Park Terrace residents can put all recyclables in the Dumpster, except glass.
“What cannot go in the recycling bin is glass. We have people at the other end that have to sort through this stuff and glass is way too hard on bodies,” said Reid.
“Glass breaks. A pop bottle is one thing; 50,000 pieces of broken glass is another. We really have to look after the safety of others.”
Park Terrace residents do not know how much having the blue Dumpster will cost.
“It's an experimental thing and we are hopeful it will not cost a lot, because otherwise, we would just haul our stuff over to the recycling centres,” said Jackson.
“If it becomes too big of a price here, people will not want to participate. The recycling bin has to be done on a low-cost basis or it won't fly.”
