Material Recovery Facility fully operational ahead of curbside recycling beginning next week

Hyggen and some students fire up the MRF

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Hyggen says it’s fitting that they had students here to help celebrate the MRF opening.

“This building is an asset that will help us protect the environment for their future and generations to come. It also helps us grow the programs and services we can offer to our residents to create long-term environmental benefits for Lethbridge.”

It’s an exciting time for the City, and Hyggen says that it’s been a long time coming.

“As a council, we’ve always wanted to do it right rather than just right now. I think it was extremely important to see what other communities are doing to get a better understanding of what works better, and what works not as good. I think we’ve done it correctly.”

It was around eight years ago or so that former Councillor Bridget Mearns really wanted to push the curbside recycling program through, according to Hyggen.

“She was always at the forefront of trying to get the recycling program going, and I’ve spoken to her a few times during the process, and she’s thrilled that this is actually happening,” he continued. “Especially because it was done the right way, we did wait some time, but I believe it was the right thing to do.”

The MRF is a 45,000 square foot facility that is operated with both hand sorting and machinery sorting equipment. The facility is capable of processing eight tonnes of recyclable material per hour.

It has been developed with enough capacity to also accept regional materials from neighbouring municipalities as well as businesses.

“The facility for the workers is set up really well. They’re looking at things ergonomically to ensure that they’re comfortable while working because it’s a long time to be on a line, so it’s really important that workers are taken care of and I think they’ve done that there,” Hyggen said.

Waste and Recycling Services General Manager Joel Sanchez explained that this has been a long process to get things right.

“It’s been more than two years since this was approved, and the facility is now all ready. Everything has come to fruition, and we’re really happy to see this. The program is ready to go, next week is the first pickup, and we’re just looking forward to that day to start processing materials from residents.”

Video by Brandyn Montgomery

Most of the people that are working in the facility right now are contractors hired by the City a few months ago, according to Sanchez, and they have a total of 14 or 15 staff.

“Those people are going to be here in the operations doing the manual sorting, and they are a key component in the process. We’ve tried to make their working environment as best as possible. It’s not an easy job, they need to be there trying to pick 40 to 50 items per minute, so it’s really busy. The equipment is going to do close to 50 or 60 percent of the sorting, but we still need to make sure we do the final steps to make sure we get the quality we’re looking for.”

One of the many stations inside the MRF

The MRF building and equipment has been designed considering quality requirements and incorporating equipment to meet current market demands. The equipment used for the sorting of the materials was supplied by Machinex, a Canadian company from Quebec. It features equipment that will separate cardboard, paper, aluminum, plastic and metal cans.

The MRF also includes a baler that compacts the material into a shippable size.

Talaya Owens was one of 25 students who attended the MRF Grand Opening, and her class is part of Natural Leaders, an environmental program offered through the Helen Schuler Nature Centre.

They have spent several months learning about things they can do to be more environmentally friendly, including the benefits of reducing, reusing and recycling.

“I think curbside recycling is a lot more convenient because it takes a lot less time and energy for the citizens of Lethbridge,” Owens said. “You don’t have to drive to the recycling centre and waste gas. Recycling helps us reduce pollution in the environment.”

The MRF is owned by the City of Lethbridge and operated by a private contractor. Construction began on the facility in the spring of 2018 and was completed in early 2019 at which time equipment installation and testing began.

The City’s first curbside recycling pickups will begin between May 14 and 24, and each week, half of the City will have garbage collection, and the other half will have recycling pickup.

by Aaron Mahoney