The city is going to stop funding the recycling depot at the Miller Waste transfer station in Owen Sound.
Council approved a recommendation at its meeting Monday to extend funding until Sept. 30, and then stop paying for the service after that.
The recycling depot is essentially a few public drop-off bins at the transfer station for blue box recyclables such as boxboard, paper, glass and plastic.
“That is the only change that you’ll notice when you come to the transfer station,” says Owen Sound Coun. Travis Dodd. “You can still take that old musty couch that’s been in your attic for three years … 30 years maybe.”
According to a staff report, Miller Waste Systems approached the city late last year with a request for an additional $21,000 annual contribution to help cover operational costs of the recycling depot that were increasing because of changes in Ontario’s blue box collection program.
The organization now handling municipal blue box collection for Owen Sound and most other communities in the province — Circular Materials — wouldn’t accept the recycling materials from the transfer station at its Mount Forest facility, the report explains.
The city approached Georgian Bluffs and Meaford to share costs for the recycling depot at the Owen Sound transfer station, but Meaford wasn’t interested.
About 150 tonnes of recyclables were dropped off at the depot last year.
