The seven Civic Centre recycling bins won’t be moved for now.
During Monday’s executive committee meeting, executive unanimously voted in favour of Coun. Brian Swanson’s motion to table the decision to possibly move the bins currently occupying the southwest corner of Sobey’s parking lot on Thatcher Drive East pending a report from administration with a list of contaminated sites in the city.
“If we’re going to do an environmental initiative - and I’m not saying this is the way to go, but I’d certainly like to consider - is what about recycling one of these sites that we have,” said Swanson. “They’re not going to be developed. There’s very restrictive legislation now about dealing with these sites. They’ve sat, some of them for decades and I’m just wondering what about those possibilities?”
The engineering department presented a report to executive outlining possible locations and cost for a permanent bin location. The bins were moved to Sobey’s on Sept. 1 to allow for the Civic Centre demolition. The report came following a motion adopted by council during its last regular meeting on Sept. 17.
The report recommended three options to be considered - High Street West on the lot located west of the City Complex, the Hillcrest parking lot and the southwest corner of Sobey’s parking lot.
Swanson said up to 80 per cent of the recycling loads go to the landfill because they are contaminated. Mayor Glenn Hagel agreed with Swanson, adding that wherever the site is needs to be better managed.
“I think it should be a long-term decision (where the bins are located),” said Hagel. “On the point of the contaminated items going to the landfill, I’ve been aware for some time that glass certainly falls into that category, that those who take their contaminated glass and take it to the recycling end up undoing all the good work that everybody else had done that brought clean glass to the site.”
For more information, see an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
