Whitehorse Blue Bin Recycling is stepping up its curbside recycling program in Whitehorse as Raven Recycling gets set to close its drop-off bins at the end of the year.
Whitehorse Blue Bin currently serves more than 1,100 residences with its residential curbside program.
General manager Fraser Lang said the company has recycling pickup services for residential locations.
“In the near future we will be offering residential curbside collection services to country residential within city limits as well,” he wrote in an email to the News.
On the commercial side, Lang said the company services everything from small businesses, such as Triple J’s Canna Space, to larger sites such as the Whitehorse General Hospital, liquor stores and Northwestel.
He said the company currently covers 300 commercial locations, with everything from break-room recycling collections to large scale cardboard collections. The prices for commercial services depend on location, he said.
The recycling company has at least two trucks on the road for eight hours a day, five days a week. It charges residential customers $25 per month for pickup every two weeks. The collected items get processed by P&M Recycling, which ships material Outside to larger processing plants, Lang said.
“We are doing great work and are proud of it, with a 10-year record of reliable and affordable services,” he said.
“All this is to say, we have a curbside program already installed in the city with a solid record. We are diverting significant quantities of recyclable material away from our landfill from both the residential and commercial sectors.”
Lang said the biggest hurdle to getting more residential curbside clients is Raven Recycling’s free bins, which allow residents to drop off recyclables 24/7 in Marwell. Raven has announced it will be closing the bins at the end of the year.
“It is tough to get people to pay for a service that is offered for free elsewhere,” Lang said.
Lang went on to say Whitehorse Blue Bin is excited to see the closure of the free drop-off option, adding it has been a long time coming as the drop-off program “really reinforces the notion that recycling is free, which could not be further from the truth.”
He said Whitehorse Blue Bin’s service is the only user-pay service in town and promotes the idea that consumer recycling responsibility comes with a reasonable financial cost.
“It is obviously going to drive more business our way and we can be a solution in the city,” he said of Raven closing the drop-off bins. “I’m also excited to see the closure because it kind of promotes the idea of, you know, people paying to responsibly get rid of their waste in an efficient and responsible manner at reasonable costs.”
Lang told the News that Whitehorse Blue Bin is already seeing an 10 per cent increase in customers in the last month with more expected.
“We would encourage prospective residential and commercial clients to contact us to see what we can offer,” he says.
Lang noted that the company is working on scaling up services and expanding outside of the city.
“WBBR has the capacity, operational knowledge and willingness to increase our services as needed,” he said. “We have a great track record and want to spread the message that this city has a capable company that is offering curbside collection already in place. Why look to start another?”
Contact Patrick Egwu at patrick.egwu@yukon-news.com