A local garbage disposal company is frustrated by the lack of recycling options available for commercial operations.
All Points Disposal Inc. has collected and bundled approximately 60 tonnes of cardboard from its commercial clients but has no where to recycle it, according to company owners Sean and Rose Millns.
The company, which started operations in May, 2010, has been separating cardboard from their commercial bins at their own cost, Sean Millns said. However the one cardboard recycling company in town, Cascades Recovery Inc., has declined to accept cardboard from All Points.
The other alternative is to ship the cardboard to Vancouver or Washington state to be recycled, they said, or dump it in the landfill.
"We want to do cardboard recycling - we wouldn't be fighting this if we didn't. How could you go, in good conscience, and bury it just because you're allowed?" Millns said. "[But] my cost to separate it, bail it and get it to Vancouver is astronomically higher than the $57 per tonne [landfill tipping fee.]"
Under a contract with the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, Cascades Recovery Inc. collects residential cardboard and paper at the landfill and recycling bins placed throughout the city. The Foothills Regional Landfill will not accept the cardboard as recycling, Rose Millns said, just as garbage.
Millns said residential recycling represents a small amount of the total garbage and potential recyclable materials collected in the city. Not having recycling available for commercial clients means tonnes of material like cardboard will end up in the landfill, she said.
"The landfill isn't set up to accept large commercial loads," regional district spokesperson Renee McCloskey said. "To start accepting commercial recycling ... we are not regulated to do that and we are not physically set up to do that."
The regional district's contract with Cascades Recovery is limited to residential material only, she added, and the regional district cannot and would not force Cascades to do business with All Points Disposal.
A spokesperson for Cascades Recovery declined to comment. However, in a letter dated May 7, 2010 sent from Cascades Recovery - then called Metro Waste Paper Recovery Inc. - plant manager Darren Wahl to All Points Disposal, Wahl said Cascades will not do any business with All Points Recovery.
"Please be advised that after careful consideration Metro Waste Recovery Inc. has made the decision not to engage or conduct any manner of business with All Points Disposal Inc. at this time," Wahl wrote.
"This includes the purchase and/or sales of recycling products of any kind and/or the sub-contracting of transportation services of any nature that your company may require. Furthermore, we insist that you ... do not in any way contact Metro Waste Paper staff within Prince George; this includes phone calls, e-mails, texting and or personal visits to any property that Metro conducts business."
Both All Points Disposal and Cascades Recovery offer roll-off garbage bin services in Prince George.
Spokespeople from two other recycling firms in Prince George said they have little contact with the two firms, but have no difficulty in getting recyclable materials to market.
