Dauphin, let's talk recycling.
The City of Dauphin is launching a new recycling awareness campaign on Monday. It will focus on improving recycling habits, reducing contamination, and addressing the ongoing misuse of the City's recycling program.
The City is constantly monitoring the amount of material that ends up at the disposal site. They've noticed a gradual decline in the amount of recyclable materials that OSS has been collecting on the City's behalf. This corresponds with an increase in the amount of material going to the waste disposal site.
"So we would like to divert as much of the recyclable materials and extend the life of the waste disposal site," said David Bosiak, Mayor. "It also increases the amount of recyclables that help the environment. It helps us overall, so that's what we're trying to do."
In recent years, contamination in curbside recycling, at the Residential Recycling Depot on 1st Avenue SE, and improper dumping at the site have continued to increase.
In recent months, the City of Dauphin has made several Facebook posts about people misusing the Residential Recycling Depot.
"You know, we've routinely been picking up garbage and things that aren't recyclable," added Bosiak. "We suspect that some of the folks are not from the community; it's just a convenient place to drop stuff off."
Bosiak says misuse of the depot is unacceptable and can't happen.
"It's become very costly," commented Bosiak. "Since we do have recycling at the maintenance site, that will be the option, if we can't get the public to treat the site in the community with the respect I believe it should have."
You can expect plenty of information throughout the campaign.
- What can and cannot be recycled
- Changes to the Residential Recycling Depot
- Common contamination issues
- How contamination impacts operations and program costs
On Monday, changes will be introduced at the Residential Recycling Depot to simplify operations, reduce misuse, and improve site cleanliness.
"We're going to clean it up a little bit. We will limit the kinds of recyclables that can go there," continued Bosiak. "Public Works is figuring out exactly what will happen. We want to keep that facility in the community, but an option is to remove it if we continue to have problems there."
You can play a role in the success of Dauphin's recycling program by recycling only accepted materials.
Stay tuned to CKDM for the changes on Monday.
