Robert McBain displays a honeycomb at the Lethbridge Waste and Recycling Centre on Aug. 27, 2019, with the other beehives on display (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Bees set up shop at Waste and Recycling Centre with new partnership

Aug 27, 2019 | 12:18 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Something’s buzzing at Lethbridge’s Waste and Recycling Centre.

The City has partnered with ECCO Recycling to have 10 beehives stationed at the facility, with bees producing fresh honey. Lethbridge is one of six hives managed by ECCO in different locations across Alberta, including Aldersyde, Balzac, Dalemead, Mazeppa and Calgary.

“We have about 10 hives at every site. This is our second year of having hives,” said Alec McDougall, President of ECCO Recycling.

“We’re a landfill in an inner-city…and we’d like people to recognize that we’re trying to improve the environment and enhance the area around us, because we’re very urban where we’re at.”

McDougall said the company plans on expanding its honey operations and noted they’re expecting about a ton and a half to two tonnes of honey produced this year.

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Last year, honey produced was handed out to clients and donated to food banks in their operational areas. This is the first year the beehives have been set up in Lethbridge.

ECCO also operates the material recovery facility that processes recyclables at the Lethbridge site.

“We thought this was a really fantastic idea because it allows us to highlight that this is a part of a community, a community that’s agricultural and we can support that community by bringing some pollinators into the area and supporting that part of our neighborhood,” said Steve Rozee, the City’s Waste and Recycling Centre Manager.

“From an environmental perspective, we’re encouraging and providing habitat and a space for pollinators to thrive here…so it helps us promote these kinds of environmental initiatives that are aligned with the City of Lethbridge and waste and recycling.”

Rozee said the City expects that the honeybees will produce about 25 kilograms of honey per hive this year, which “could increase in future years”.

“Wherever possible, we want to not just protect the environment but enhance it, so this was a great opportunity for us in a concrete way, with our partners, to do something that enhances the local environment and provides that very important habitat for the pollinators that are so critical here in Southern Alberta,” Rozee noted.

He said plans are not set in stone yet on what to do with the honey once it’s produced but mentioned that the City could use the honey for giveaways or local donations.

Robert McBain, a part owner of Calgary’s Worker and Hive Bee Supply. The company manufactures and distributes beehives equipment and honeybees.

“I approached them (ECCO) about managing their beehives once I saw that they (have) some at their facility in Calgary and they were very open to that, so we expanded to 60 colonies this year,” he said.

“We’re making lots of honey and helping pollinate the agricultural lands around us.”

McBain explained landfills offer an excellent space to set up the beehives.

“Landfills typically have a lot of open space where they need ground cover when they fill over the landfill sites, they need to plant it with ground cover. ECCO does a good job of using pollinator friendly ground covers, plus bees have about a two to three-mile flight radius, so they’re not restricted only to this facility, they’re catching the neighborhood canola crops and hayfields,” he said.

ECCO has committed to managing bees at the Lethbridge site for a minimum of five years.