The long awaited Pritchard eco-depot will be opening sooner rather than later.
Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) representatives Peter Hughes and Jamie Vieira announced to Chase council Tuesday that the expected opening date for the depot is July 30.
“It has been a long time coming,” Hughes said.
With the opening of the new waste management site comes a few changes as well.
Cash will no longer be accepted at the site; however, credit and debit will. Charge accounts can also be arranged for some businesses. Those who do not want to use the cash or credit options can opt for the eco-cards which will continue to be sold at the village office, Pritchard store and Safety Mart.
Another big change is how fees will be applied.
Instead of attendants estimating the weight of each load, scales will now be used.
This method, Hughes said, will be much fairer.
He noted that before, people were paying $4 for four bags of garbage. “We are finding now that people are looking at $2.50 to $3,” he said. “On the other hand, those who were paying $10 for a pickup truck load are going to be paying a little more.”
Vieira said staff were receiving a number of legitimate complaints from their current setup; however, he assured this method will be a fair alternative.
“Everyone who goes over the scale is weighed the same way,” he said, noting that the scales used are the same type used by Transport Canada.
“It has the majority of our customers saving money,” Vieira said.
The new eco-depot will also have additional staff running the show. One will be stationed at the weigh-in station while the other will be out on the grounds.
Some other notable changes include the materials the depot will be taking as of July 30, or in the near future.
This includes the acceptance of electronic waste and paint for recycling.
While they will not be accepted on opening day, the eco-depot will be taking household hazardous waste. This will not begin until sometime down the road, as more information on the proper infrastructure required to handle such wastes is needed.
While the waste management site is capable of sorting yard brush already, in the future it will also accept lumber for chipping and recycling.
There will also be a noticeable increase in the storage space capacity for all the items they already accept.
“In terms of operation and safety there is an overall increase in efficiency,” Vieira said.
While at the current dump site, users must throw their garbage over or through a railing to get it in the bins, this site has a new method. There will be a tipping floor found in the new depot, which will allow users to simply dump their garbage on the floor.
A share shed was also noted as one of the upcoming additions.
The site itself features three buildings, the scale building, the recycling building and the garbage building.
Entrance to the site will be off Martin Prairie Road and will feature increased access. However, during the inaugural opening the road will be located at Duck Range Road.
This, Hughes said, is because they cannot construct the new driveway until the Pritchard dumping bins site is closed down.
The TNRD will continue to redirect contractors to the Heffley site, said Hughes, explaining they will take smaller loads if they have them.
“If they have heaping loads of concrete and other items we are going to send them to Heffley,” he said.
Coun. Steve Scott asked if they are going to be using the yard waste such as leaves to create a composting program where they would eventually resell.
While one of the TNRD’s goals is to set up several composting stations around the area in the future, at this time the program is not ready and the compost collected will go to the reclaiming the closed landfills.
The TNRD representatives also said there may still be an annual community waste pick-up but they cannot promise this.
The program, while advertised and endorsed by them, is actually conducted by a stewardship program. While Vieira said he could see no reason why they would stop hosting this event, he could not say for sure.
The new eco depot is one of the three latest additions to the TNRD’s waste disposal sites.
Hours for the new site will be: Tuesdays and Thursdays it will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. with hours on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday running from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.
The depot will be closed on Mondays. These hours are expected to change slightly during the winter months.
