Business is booming at the new SARCAN recycling depot in Warman.
Since opening in June, the state-of-the-art depot has collected well in excess of the volume originally anticipated by the company.
“We estimated last spring that we could likely collect between 3 to 5 million beverage containers in the first year of operation,” said SARCAN Operations Director Kevin Acton in an interview in late November.
“But in just three and a half months, between June 15 and September 30, we actually took in 4,178,051 beverage containers.
“So that’s a very significant volume; a lot more than we expected.”
He said the Warman recycling depot has diverted approximately 63,000 kilograms (140,000 pounds) of material from the landfill.
Acton said it appears a significant number of customers using the Warman depot are actually from the north end of Saskatoon.
“A lot of the volume is coming from Saskatoon, especially in the summer time,” said Acton. “There are generally long line-ups at the depots in Saskatoon, and it appears people are stopping in at Warman on their way to the lakes up north.”
Acton said the opening of the Warman depot has not negatively impacted the business at the existing SARCAN depots in Martensville, Waldheim or Rosthern.
“The Martensville depot collected 3,730,000 beverage containers between June 15 and September 30,” said Acton. “Rosthern collected 2,165,000 and Waldheim 401,000 beverage containers during that same period. Blaine Lake collected 1,780,000.”
Acton said the Warman depot compares favourably with other cities of similar size, including Swift Current, Melfort and Estevan.
The Warman depot employs 10 people, and is designed to handle containers more efficiently and with less hassle for both customers and employees. Acton said investing in a depot at Warman was a good business decision for the company.
“The community is very supportive,” he said. “And the city’s elected officials and administration have been great to work with.”
He noted that customers are respectful of public health and safety protocols, including mandatory masks and physical distancing, currently in place in all SARCAN depots in the area.
He said SARCAN is opening a new depot in the south end of Saskatoon, which should prove handy for residents in the hamlets of Grasswood, Casa Rio and other areas of South Corman Park.
The new facility, located on Jasper Avenue South in Saskatoon, is expected to open in February, 2021.
Acton said the volume of materials taken in by the depots across the province is comparable to other years despite the COVID-19 pandemic. But, he added, the market returns generated by the sale of those containers to processors in other parts of North America has declined.
“There have been some fluctuations in pricing this year,” said Acton. “The price of aluminum dropped. We’re still able to sell all our aluminum beverage containers to processors, but the price we get for those containers is less than what it used to be.
“It’s the same story with plastic beverage containers. The price of plastics dropped after oil prices crashed. Plastic is made from petroleum, and they can make brand new plastic containers cheaper than they can make them from recycled plastic, so that obviously impacted the price.
“The only people buying plastic for recycling are those that are mandated by legislation to use recycled content.”
Acton said even though the prices have temporarily impacted the company’s bottom line, the industry itself is healthy.
SARCAN depots also accept paint and electronics for recycling. These materials are passed on to certified processors in western Canada.