Since the beginning of the year, Fort Frances and all other recycle programs in the province completed the transition from municipal programs to corporate collection of materials, and that could mean a big change for locals who drop their recycling off at the depot.
In a report to council, Town of Fort Frances Manager of Operations and Facilities Travis Rob, says, if sold to GFL, the recycling depot would not likely stay open.
“In the eyes of Circular Materials, if the Town was to sell the depot to GFL, it would in essence be closing the depot, identifying it as unnecessary and removing the need for continued operation,” Rob wrote.
“This would be a tremendous negative hit to the community who clearly utilizes the depot regularly.”
Recognizing that the outright removal of the depot would complicate the collection of recyclable materials across not only Fort Frances, but the district, the town opted for an interim solution of maintaining the depot for three years in 2023.
“Uncertainty led the Town towards selling off its land and assets associated with the depot and transfer station on 6th Street West post-transition as the Town would no longer have any role in recycle,” the report says.
“However, late in December, Circular Materials finally sat down with the Town to try to figure out the future of the depot.”
Other options explored by the Town and Circular Materials included a bin placed at the landfill, although this was ultimately ruled out because of the distance from town and labour needed to maintain it.
“As a result, the Town has continued to operate the depot as it always had on 6th Street West, paid for through an extension agreement with Circular Materials for an initial period of 3 years while Circular materials brings on surrounding communities and operationally rationalizes depot numbers and locations in the region,” reads Rob’s report.
“With this late year change in operating plans, the Town has paused the disposition of the property and transfer station as it considers and negotiates future transfer station operational options.”
The Town’s garbage collection calendars do not show recycling collection for this year this year. However, GFL and Circular Material have calendars available and requests of a new bin can be made at https://www.circularmaterials.ca/resident-communities/fort-frances/.
