Transfer stations in Vanway and McBride may get recycling depots later this year because of the partnership the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George and Recycle BC.
At a meeting of the district’s Environment and Parks Standing Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 19, a motion passed to accept Recycle BC’s offer to provide two more recycling depots.
Last September, the regional district partnered with Recycle BC to set up three principal recycling depots at the Valemount Regional Transfer Station, the Mackenzie Regional Transfer Sation and the Quinn Street Regional Recycling Depot in Prince George.
That returned recycling services to Valemount and Mackenzie after the contractor that hauled recycling bins to and from those communities announced it would no longer be able to provide those services effective May 31, 2024.
At that time, the regional district said it was working with Recycle BC to see what other sites collection depots could be added to.
A letter sent to Recycle BC by the regional district on Nov. 14, 2024, which was attached to the Feb. 19 meeting agenda, requested four additional principal depots at the Cummings Road Regional Transfer Station to serve residents in electoral areas D, F and E, at McBride Regional Transfer Station to service both McBride and residents of Electoral Area H, at Vanway Regional Transfer Station to serve Prince George residents who don’t qualify for curbside recycling collection as well as Electoral Area C and at the Foothills Boulevard Regional Landfill to serve residents in electoral areas A and G.
On Feb. 12, 2025, Recycle BC sent a response letter approving a principal depot in Vanway and a satellite depot in McBride this year “provided that all program requirements and collection standards are met.”
“Such depots must be staffed, secure during non-operating hours, accept all applicable categories of packaging and paper products, have the capacity to ensure only material from residential sources is collected under the Recycle BC program, and meet all other Recycle BC depot requirements,” read the letter from Recycle BC’s Martin Dickson.
The only difference between a principal and satellite depot, explained the district’s general manager of environmental services Laura Zapotichny at the Feb. 19 meeting, is that the regional district is responsible for transporting collected materials to a principal depot.
That means when the McBride depot opens, the material it collects will be brought to the Valemount depot.
The regional district’s board of directors will be presented with new master service agreements and statements of work at its March meeting to add the Vanway and McBride depots.
Director Joan Atkinson, the mayor of the District of Mackenzie, said having Recycle BC in her community “has been a game changer” because almost all of the material dropped off at the previous unmanned recycling bins at the transfer station ended up in a landfill.
“I’ve been out there a number of times now and the staff are amazing and everything is going to the right place,” she said. “It’s working and it was a very hard sell because we lost curbside pickup in town, but people are now recognizing the importance and the ease.”
At the committee meeting, Director Dannielle Alan (Robson Valley-Canoe) was acclaimed as its chair for 2025.
“I really appreciate the opportunity to do this,” Alan said after her acclamation. “I have a lot of ideas about environmental sustainability as you all know. Hopefully we’ll be able to work to build that right into the culture of everything that we do here.”
