RDCK recycling program at Grohman Transfer Station 'not user friendly' says Taghum resident
By Bruce Fuhr
The end of “Blue Bag” recycling for Regional District of Central Kootenay residents Central Sub-region began in October of 2015.
However, concerns continue to linger over the new policy, especially the set up at the Grohman Transfer Station, located a few kilometers west of Nelson above Pacific Insight Electronics.
“I’m very upset that the new recycling depot (at Grohman) is not user friendly,” Taghum resident Scott Robertson told The Nelson Daily.
“During one visit to the depot, I cut my hand trying to put my bag in the bin. And one person I talked to said they don’t even recycle anymore because of how difficult it is now.”
“If the RDCK wants more people to recycle, they need to make the process easier,” the disgruntled Robertson added.
When contacted regarding Robertson’s concerns, Mike Morrison, Resource Recovery Manager for the RDCK acknowledges that the layout of the recycling depot at Grohman is less than ideal for the amount of public traffic but said there are limited options for changing the layout at this time.
“We need to keep a minimum number of bins at this site and maintain traffic lanes for our waste transfer vehicles,” Morrison said regarding Robertson’s concerns.
“We encourage the public, especially large volume generators of recycling, to use the full service recycling depot located at the old transfer station site on Lakeside Drive as a more user-friendly alternative to recycling at the Grohman site.”
Morrison said the RDCK is currently evaluating opportunities to slightly expand the recycling area to remove the inner row of bins.
“We have received feedback from several people that the layout of the bins at the Grohman site is inconvenient and that the bins are often full,” Morrison explained.
“So (RDCK) is increasing the frequency of visits by our service contractor to address site tidiness and bin capacity issues.”
Morrison said the RDCK continues to monitor refuse collecting in the Central Sub-region of the RDCK and sees a growing trend of litter making its way into the recycling bins.
“At some RDCK recycling depots we continue to experience a significant amount of litter related to some members of the public leaving their recyclables outside the bins,” Morrison said.
“We would like to emphasize the responsibility everyone has in using the recycling system properly and minimizing the community impact of our depots.”
The “Blue Bag” recycling program is still being used at some pick-up locations, including the City of Nelson.
The current RDCK program sees materials collected with the newer program comingled in a single stream, except cardboard and glass, which is recycled in separate bins.
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