Town crews reinforced the old cliche of taking out the trash these past two weeks. Crews wrapped up anther successful Spring Cleanup this past Thursday, May 10.
The cleanup had started on April 30 and saw crews collecting items from residences that would otherwise be left by the standard garbage collection service.
“The crew did a fantastic job as usual. The Town guys have this down to a science,” said Tammi Nygaard, operations manager for Drumheller and District Solid Waste Management Association.
Overall, the amount of items collected were on par with the previous year. Wood, household, and compost materials were up by 10 metric tonnes, to 229.57 mt. Metal was down slightly to 41.86 mt.
The number of batteries collected decreased drastically from 111 in 2011 to 48 this year.
“Right now, batteries are lucrative. I think there were a lot of scavengers prior to the guys going through,” said Nygaard.
The number of tires collected increased, but quite a few had to be left behind, because they still had their rims. The Town cannot recycle tires with rims.
“We have to have them separated, that’s why we couldn’t pick up all the tires this year,” said Nygaard.
With the purchase of tires, there is a $4 tire tax that goes towards recycling and transporting used tires. However, the tax does not cover rims and the Town does not have a machine to separate rims from their tires.
There were some issues with water coolers this year. Water coolers contain freon and must be treated like other freon appliances, such as fridges. A sticker, as seen on fridges, must be attached to a water cooler.
There was a big increase in the number of televisions being disposed.
“Everybody, I’m sure, in the Town of Drumheller got new TV’s this year,” said Nygaard. “We had so many TV’s it was unbelievable.”
In the end, only 66 hours of overtime were required by the crews, a dramatic decrease from previous years, where it was not uncommon for the crews to be out late into the evening working away. As a result, labour costs were down.
Nygaard praised residents efforts to sort their items for collection. Unsorted piles can be dangerous for crews.
“In a previous year we had a gentleman stick his hand in a pile that wasn’t sorted and was burned by battery acid,” said Nygaard.
The Town will be recognizing the efforts of all those who helped make the Spring Cleanup a success. Mayor Terry Yemen will be writing a letter thanking everybody for the fantastic job.
