SASKATOON - Small-town pride comes in many forms.
You can cheer on the kids’ sports team, host a get-together at the Legion — and, if you live in the town of Turtleford, enthusiastically recycle millions of cans and cartons every year.
Turtleford, a town of around 500 people located about an hour’s drive north of the Battlefords, has been keeping its local SARCAN facility very busy.
"We are trying for our third year of getting three million containers," recycling technician Debbie Rogers said.
"We have only 800,000 left that we have to get before the end of March."
SARCAN has been in Turtleford for a long time, but if locals keep bringing in this many containers every year, Rogers says the company might expand the facility — which would bring more jobs, and more recycling capacity.
Rogers says the community is doing everything it can to make that happen.
"We are very, very busy," she said.
"People have been really good about posting on Facebook and encouraging people and phoning them up to ask them to bring their cans over here."
SARCAN cashier Dee Zoller has been one of the people leading the charge to three million — reaching out to other nearby towns that don’t have a SARCAN facility of their own, and even calling up her neighbours to check in if she hasn’t seen them at the recycling depot in a while.
"People have been really supportive," she said.
"Everyone has banded together for this."
People are keen to hit that three million target for the third year in a row, and a local school and skating club have been coordinating bottle drives too. In a way, Zoller says, it has become a point of local pride, and she is "absolutely" confident they will meet their goal.
"Usually, this is our slower time — but people have really been coming together and bringing all their containers, and we’re going strong," she said.
According to Zoller, people have been particularly happy that they can now bring household glass to get recycled at SARCAN — you don't get a deposit back on it, but you don’t have to throw it in the landfill, either.
SARCAN already added an addition to the building this year to help keep up with demand.
At the SARCAN head office, assistant director of collections Chantelle Diakuw says this sort of commitment to recycling has been heartening to see.
"There are lots of communities that are super-enthusiastic about recycling, and it’s great to hear about it coming from Turtleford," she said.
"More containers means more jobs and more dollars into the local economy, so we’re super excited about that."
Along with jobs and a boost to the local economy, Diakuw says local SARCAN facilities throughout the province go a long way toward making recycling convenient and accessible, and keeping communities beautiful.
And if people want to keep SARCAN in their community, or see their facility expand, "all they have to do is keep using us,” Diakuw said. “All they have to do is keep those containers coming in."
