Quispamsis curbside recyling 'much cleaner,' landfill says

The Town of Quispamsis is making its switch to curbside recycling more permanent this week with the removal of blue bins from one of its two sites.

The town launched its curbside pickup program two months ago, and already, officials at the Fundy Region Solid Waste Commission have noticed a difference in the material coming in.

"It's much cleaner … It's really nice to see that it's well-sorted," said Brenda MacCallum, the commission's public relations and project development coordinator. "The right items are being set out, and that's the beauty of curbside recycling.

"Any mistakes get corrected right at your curb so you know right away when you put out the wrong item because it's going to be left behind."

Quispamsis residents recycled 5,000 kilograms of material in May, while the neighbouring town of Rothesay, which launched a similar program last fall, collected 3,500 kilograms — "a healthy number" for their populations, MacCallum told Information Morning Saint John.

Two services 'too expensive'

There's still a fair amount of material coming in to the community drop-off sites, which is why they're being removed in stages.

"People from outlying areas, rural areas, they're using the bins [for] their nice, central location … some small businesses use the depots and people in multi-residential housing …[and] we're still seeing people who like the old program," MacCallum said.

"But we can't continue to have two services in the area, that's just too expensive for the region as a whole."

The bins at the Foodland location at 1 Market St. will be removed in the fall.

That should give the program enough time to work out the remaining kinks, starting with implementing a 7 a.m. start to its crowded Tuesday run.

"They're having difficulties completing it all in one day, so some of it is getting picked up on Wednesday," said MacCallum.

"They're trying to fix that, so just a warning … set out your Tuesday recycling early so everyone can get done."

Four of five Canadian households currently have curbside recycling pickup.