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City awards curbside recycling contract to Can Pak

Mar 6, 2017 | 8:10 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The City of Medicine Hat has awarded the contract for curbside recycling to Can Pak Environmental.

The company was one of five who submitted proposals to operate a material recovery facility (MRF) and residential recycling collection.

Curbside service is expected to begin in the spring of 2018.

The contract is valued at $1.5 million dollars.

Can Pak provides several contracted recycling services with other municipaliteis in Alberta.

In evaluating the company the city conducted reference checks with five other cities who currently use their services.

City documents say the references indicated Can Pak was responsive to their needs, adaptive where necessary and supportive of them expanding”.

According to the city Can Pak offered the lowest cost to the municipality with the highest level of technical expertise and ability to carry out both the blue bin service and operate the MRF.

The service will be mandatory and will begin with all single family homes, duplexes and 4-plexes in the city.

Residents who are part of the mandatory curbside service will pay $4.66/month, lower than the city expected.

Mayor Ted Clugston said the curbside service will likely save residents money in the long run because it will extend the life of the landfill.

“The longer we can push back the implementation of a new landfill the more money we save,” he said. “Landfills are in the millions, $20million to $30 million dollar mark if you could even get one approved with new environmental rules.”

Clugston adds that if city council didn’t move forward with curbside recycling they’d likely have had to add in an extra fee to waste collection to fund a new landfill.

“We would basically have to start charging you now, we would have to build up a sinking fund,” said Clugston. “It could probably be even more that $4.66 per month.”

The city expects recycling and waste diversion will increase significantly with the curbside service.

All recyclibles except for glass will be able to go into the bins without having to be sorted.

Two of the three current recycling depots will likely remain once curbside service is introduced, so those who don’t have the service can still recycle and others can drop off their glass for recycling.

REDI Enterprises who currently operates the MRF and collection depots will still operate their bottle depot on South Railway Street, and they will maintain ownership of their shredding company SHREDI.

SHREDI may need to be relocated though as it’s operations are currently done at the MRF.

Employees of REDI working at the MRF and in collections will be given the opportunity to interview with Can Pak once the company takes over.

The city is currently in negotiations with Can Pak over the sale of the MRF.

It’s not known how much money the city is hoping to generate from the sale of the MRF but officials say they plan to use the money from the sale to purchase the blue bins.