Hey! Where’re you taking our Blue Bins, pal?

A trucker tightens the straps securing the old blue bins he was carting away from the CSRD's recycling area on Vernon late Thursday morning. The bins have been replaced by a new co-mingled green bin. David F. Rooney photo
A trucker tightens the straps securing the old blue bins he was carting away from the CSRD's recycling area on Vernon late Thursday morning. The six bins have been replaced by a new, single, co-mingled green bin. David F. Rooney photo

By David F. Rooney

Avid recyclers who went to the recycling area by the Forum late Thursday morning received a small shock when they saw a trucker carting away the six familiar blue bins, leaving behind a single green one.

“The new green bin holds over 30 yards of material,” says Darcy Mooney, manager of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s Recycling Program. “The total capacity of the old blue bins was 24 yards. We will be servicing the bin to ensure that there is capacity. If we need to add a second bin we are prepared to do so.”

The new single bins will now take everything together — paper, glass and metal cans. There is no need to separate them into different bins. The CSRD will also now take #1, #2, #4 and #5 consumer plastics, as well.

As if that wasn’t enough to give a recyclers heart palpitations, the Revelstoke Bottle Depot will soon begin accepting dead electronics such as TVs, computers and monitors

“Sharon (his wife) and I will be taking a course on what to do with end-of-life electronics,” the depot’s Lawrence Davis said Thursday. “The course will teach us everything we need to know about what we can handle, how we handle it and where we ship it.”

The Revelstoke Bottle Depot will begin accepting dead electronics for free sometime in October, Davis said.

“Nothing will leave the premises except on one of our trucks,” he said.