Handi-Works to end paper and cardboard collection this month

By Ryan Kiedrowski
Journal Staff
Wednesday May 16, 2007

With the environment such a key issue these days, news that Handi-Works will be discontinuing cardboard and paper collection services for Nipawin businesses certainly comes as a shock.

As of the end of this month, the organization will no longer be able to offer the service, which is offered at no charge to local businesses. It will also result in the loss of one full time job.
"I don't know what to really do about it. There's nothing for me now after that," said Dylan Yates, the employee affected by the decision when asked what his reaction was. Yates has been picking up cardboard and paper from local businesses for four years.

Others are also surprised that the program is coming to an end.

"I just can't believe it that we're going backwards. I've worked here since we started recycling paper," said Debbie Rempel, who supervised the sorting once the products arrived. "In this day and age it's hard to believe that we'd be discontinuing something like this."

Since the program's inception, Handi-Works has carried the operating cost over 12 months, and would then submit a statement to the Town of Nipawin. The Town would then provide a grant for the service, which is free of charge to businesses.

Handi-Works Managing Director Hugh MacDonald noted that the highest amount of funding they have received from the Town was $24,000. Since October, the current deficit sits at $27,000.

"The whole proposal to the Town this time was that we wanted to do it in a more efficient, healthier way," said MacDonald in an interview with The Journal. "At this point, we've got people in the back that are on their hands and knees crawling through the paper that is dumped from the truck."

He also noted that all manner of objects can be found amongst the paper and cardboard products that are meant to be there. Workers have come across hypodermic needles, dead animals, "anything you would imagine," he said.

A conveyor-type sorting system was one item on MacDonald's wish list of capital items, which also included another bailer that is currently sitting in North Battleford and Handi-Works is making payments on.

According to Steve Piermantier, administrator for the Town of Nipawin, the funding request from Handi-Works was something they simply could not disperse.

"Basically, the amount of funding requested from the Town was going to increase from $24,000 to anywhere to $140,000 to $190,000 per year," he said. "The one issue that Council's had for a number of years is the fact that Handi-Works does not charge anything of the customers for the collection of cardboard or paper."

Piermantier explained that Council noted the benefit to the recycling project early on, which ultimately meant fewer items heading to the landfill.

Council ultimately denied the request for an operating grant.

A future without the cardboard and paper collection service could mean more stress on the landfill.

MacDonald estimated that over 12 months, 1,552 bales of compressed cardboard and paper is created. Translated into how much space this would occupy, the pile would measure eight feet high, four feet deep and 2,586 feet long.

"I don't know what kind of emotion to feel. I'm at the point now that I'm upset," said MacDonald in reaction to trying to keep the program going. "We've accepted the fact that it's not going to go ahead."

Handi-Works will continue to provide confidential shredding services.