Hazardous waste collection offers relief

Residents in the MD’s west will have the chance to discard defunct electronics and hazardous materials closer to home on Saturday.

The MD of Foothills is hosting a recycling roundup to collect electronic and hazardous waste at both the Black Diamond and Priddis transfer stations on Sept. 24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Items accepted include computers, keyboards, mouses, cables, speakers, monitors, printers, laptops, notebooks, tablets, televisions and paint cans.

“What it does is it makes it much more accessible for people who live in the northwest area,” said Leslie Lambert, who’s in corporate communications with the MD of Foothills. “You can bring your hazardous household waste to the regular landfill year round. When it’s closer and more convenient you are more likely to take something in.”

Lambert said the recycling roundup program began at the Black Diamond and Priddis transfer stations last fall. A second one was held in the spring.

“The Black Diamond transfer station accepts garbage year round, but it’s not a full service venue,” she said. “It’s giving people who are further away from the landfill a place to come. You don’t want to store these things for too long and you also want to divert it from garbage.”

Joe Angevine, manager of the Foothills Regional Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre, said the transfer station in Black Diamond saw 11 large television sets, 15 printers, copiers and scanners, 10 computers and five laptops last spring, weighing a total of one ton.

In Priddis, the count was 23 TVs, 20 computers, 20 printers, copiers and scanners, seven small televisions and two laptops, weighing in at almost two tons.

Angevine said when he first began as manager at the landfill he learned that hazardous waste was being collected differently in each community and, as a result, each underwent a safety audit.

“We realized we needed to shut down a bunch of these collection points,” he said. “Each one had its own unique safety issue – risk of exposure to environment, poor ventilation.”

Angevine said the recycling roundup not only ensures that the materials are stored carefully, but provides more convenience to those wanting to dispose of them.

“Not everybody has a truck and can haul the stuff out to the landfill,” he said. “We are trying to set up something that is close and encourage the Towns to do the same as well. It’s more for convenience and to try to give people another option.”

The roundups are funded through the disposal fees charged to consumers for materials like paints, as mandated by the Alberta Recycling Management Authority, to fund collection points like the landfill and roundup events, said Angevine.

He added that residents in the Priddis and Black Diamond areas can expect the one-day roundup events to continue once each in the spring and fall.

“We want to be consistent,” he said. “As long as people keep using them we will keep setting them up. The whole idea is to make it convenient so stuff doesn’t end up in the dumpster contaminating the environment.”

Black Diamond chief administrative officer Sharlene Brown is glad to see something in place to keep hazardous and electronic materials out of the landfill.

“If we do it through the recycling roundup… instead of throwing all the stuff into the landfill it will eventually reduce capacity at the landfill,” she said. “Recycling electronics is a fairly new piece. Over at the recycling depot in Turner Valley they have a specialized spot for these recyclables and with the roundup they will have the opportunity to get rid of some of that old stuff.”

Brown said a recent study conducted by the MD of Foothills reveals that 51 per cent of users of the Black Diamond Transfer Station are Black Diamond residents. The remaining are from the surrounding area, she said.

“We utilize that service a lot,” she said. “It says something about the people within the community. Instead of putting it into the garbage they find opportunities to recycle the materials, which is an absolutely fantastic thing to do.”

Those unable to bring their materials to the transfer station on Saturday can take them to the Foothills Regional Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre year round at no cost.

The facility is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from Monday to Saturday.