YORKTON – The grand opening for the Household Hazardous Waste Depot at 180 Ball Rd took place April 22.
Local politicians, general public, the City of Yorkton Environmental Committee and employees of SaskAbilities gathered at the site of the HHWD on Earth Day 2023 to mark the grand opening of the depot.
"This is where residents of Yorkton can bring all of their aerosol cans, old fuel, propane tanks—just the small size though, we don't take large," said Sandy Bilan, Senior Supervisor of the Recycling Centre for SaskAbilities, adding, "if you have unmarked stuff at home and you're not sure what it is you can bring it here we'll dispose of it properly."
"We're just encouraging everybody to bring all of those old items that you have in your house and you don't know what to do with — bring them here," said Bilan.
"Along with the City of Yorkton we've hosted a Household Hazardous Waste Day every October for the last few years — people are kind of familiar with what we do," said Bilan, adding, "this is year round."
The hours for the HHWD are scheduled for Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m – 4:00 p.m.
"I hope all the residents come out and support our program," said Bilan, "we really want to keep it out of the landfill."
"This enables the city of Yorkton to be able to bring their hazardous hous-hold waste products any day during drop off hours," said Shannon Erickson, Chair of the Environmental Committee for the City of Yorkton.
"It's been a lot of work by the city's environmental staff and RecycleAbilities with oversight from our committee to try to make this happen," said Erickson, noting, "it's been a three year process but it's very worthwhile."
"There's a lot of risks involved with collecting household hazardous waste...SaskAbilities along with the City of Yorkton did a lot of work to mitigate the impact of those risks and make it possible to have this facility for the public to bring those products," said Erickson.
"Personally I've got a long history with SaskAbilities and recycling," said Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit, adding, "back about 30 years ago through my old company we developed a partnership to do cardboard recycling...fast forward now to see how they've expanded into different materials."
"Whatever needs to be recycled in town they're looking at addressing those different issues and now to move this household hazardous waste from one day a week to being able to dispose of it properly every day of the year is something that's pretty impressive," said Ottenbreit.
"It just goes to show SaskAbilities is very good at developing partnerships but also responding to the needs of the community and benefiting those with different abilities with employment and different opportunities," added Ottenbriet.
"This is what it's all about is being responsible," said Yorkton Mayor Mitch Hippsley.
"We're starting early enough now that we've put ourselves on the right track to develop a great city —as it already is," said the Hippsley, adding, "it's really nice to have such a wonderful organization in SaskAbilities — they are so responsible and so engaged in trying to make this world a better place."
