The Portage and District Recycling Plant was filled with Portagers taking tours and enjoying some barbecue, as they celebrated 35 years of making sure recyclable items find the right home.
General Manager Christine Major says they service both the City and Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie, and have their services contracted by smaller communities.
As community members attended the tours, she pointed out a misconception that could lead to the tainting of otherwise good recyclable items.
"When recycling comes in and it's contaminated, such as mould or food products, unfortunately, that does go in the garbage," explains Major. "We do have critters that like to come into our plant if they smell the contamination, so we do appreciate you cleaning them."
She adds that the mills that they sell their recycling to will not accept a mouldy bale, which could lead to the entire sale being refunded. This could cause the recycling plant to lose on potential profits that allow them to continue cleaning up after Portage.
If you don't want to spend time rinsing out your recyclables by hand, Major recommends putting them in your dishwasher to clean them out.
She describes what the process is from the collection to the sale of the recycling.
"It is picked up at your curbside commingled, meaning everything is put into a blue box or a bag," notes Major. "We bring it into our plant, we put it on our tipping floor, and it goes up a couple of conveyors. There's a continuous magnet that will take the tin out, and there are ten operators that sort the recycling."
The plant has 20 full-time employees, as well as five to ten summer students. They also have a contract with Portage Collegiate Institute to get help from students with their internship programs.
"(Portage and District Recycling) started in 1989 by a group of volunteers that wanted to make a difference in the Community," says Major. "They were picking up your curbside recycling or commercial recycling with their own half-ton, they'd bring it to a small plant to be sorted. Then we were incorporated in '93, and we are run by a group of Board of Directors, and we have been here in this plant since '94."
As they look to continue on past their 35th anniversary, Major thanks the community, city, and rural municipality for their support throughout the decades.