The 49th Ave Recycling Centre at 4920 49 Ave. will close on Aug. 1, 2023. Recycling centres are managed by Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission, which earlier announced its intention to stop servicing recycling centres by July 31, 2023, impacting the whole region.
The Commission’s recommendation to members was to close the unmonitored stations and have municipal residents utilize existing blue-bin services. "Given the unmanned nature of Commission sites and the large distances between them, the costs and efficiency of the regional recycling program simply don’t make financial or logistical sense,” said the Commission in a letter to member communities.
The Commission highlighted several reasons for the closures, primarily economical with illegal dumping cited as the main culprit:
- In Olds specifically, around 33% of recycling ended up directly in the Didsbury landfill due to contamination from users dumping garbage, electrical goods and household hazardous products that cannot be recycled.
- Due to the additional trucking required to transport contaminated loads from the sorting facility to the landfill, the annual operational cost of this facility amounts to approximately $1759 per tonne of material. Hauling directly to the landfill is only $97 per tonne, making the economic viability of the recycle stations very difficult to justify.
- This facility does not meet its intended objectives, despite the significant investment by taxpayers.
“This isn’t the direction we wanted to see this program go, but this isn’t just a Town issue – it affects all communities in Mountain View County,” says Scott Grieco, Director of Operation for the Town of Olds. “We do, however, understand the economic difficulties faced by the Waste Commission and their decision to discontinue the program.”
The decision to close the recycling centre does not affect the residential blue bin program in Olds, which provides robust recycling capabilities. Residents are encouraged to continue using their blue bins on regularly scheduled pickup days. For excess recycling material, additional blue bins are available from the town. Visit www.olds.ca/WasteCollection for details.
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Media Contact
Scott Grieco,
Director of Operations, Town of Olds
sgreico@olds.ca, 403.507.4823