Raven Recycling, one of Whitehorse’s main recycling centres, is asking city residents to temporarily refrain from dropping off recyclable material because its main baler is not operational.
The facility’s reduced operating capacity was announced on social media, and signs in the recycling drop-off area alert visitors to the situation.
The baler has been out of service since July 10, due to damage suffered by its conveyor belt. Wear and tear is being partially blamed for the baler’s service outage, although a piece of metal pipe that was unknowingly fed into the machine is another likely culprit.
“We think the factor that initially caused the problem [is] we pulled out a piece of, like, aluminum pipe that had somehow gotten into the cardboard that we were baling at the time,” Robin Reid-Fraser, the operations manager at Raven Recycling, said.
“It’s possible that pipe got stuck in front of the conveyor belt and caused some parts to get jostled and shifted [and] kicked everything out of alignment. And now these other issues of wear and tear need to be dealt with to get everything back into proper working order.”
Despite the pause of services, Raven Recycling can still accept several recyclable materials, namely textiles, e-waste, scrap metals and glass items like wine bottles and refillable beer bottles. Staff at the News have also heard reports from some community members that they have been able to drop off cardboard, plastic and other materials despite the centre’s broken baler.
No firm date has been set for resuming routine services at Raven Recycling, although Reid-Fraser hopes the baler will be working again by the end of this week.
However, she notes that once the machinery is operating, staff will have to work through a backlog of material.
“We’ve got quite a pile of cardboard, especially in our yard. So, although we’re hoping that our equipment will be functional before the end of the week, we will just be playing catch up for several more days to get back to our regular operating [system],” Reid-Fraser said.
Reid-Fraser told the News that Raven Recycling staff appreciate the public’s patience and are aware that people want to get stored recyclables out of their homes.
Since Raven Recycling’s baler broke, Whitehorse’s other recycling centre, P&M Recycling, has experienced an uptick in drop-offs of cardboard and boxboard and a “slight” increase in plastic recyclables, according to owner Pat McInroy.
The minor increase in drop-offs at P&M Recycling has not strained the business’ resources, McInroy said, and it is expected that the volume of recyclables will return to normal once Raven Recycling is operating at full capacity again.
Stay tuned to Raven Recycling’s social media accounts for updates on the situation.
READ MORE: Yukon’s Dawson City ramps up recycling
Contact Matthew Bossons at matthew.bossons@yukon-news.com