
(Credit: Tk'emlups te Secwepemc, website)
People will soon be able to dispose of hazardous waste materials year-round in the Kamloops region.
The Thompson Nicola Regional District has approved the contract for a year-round Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Depot at the Mount Paul Industrial Park in Kamloops.
TNRD Board Chair Barbara Roden says the new facility will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and will replace annual HHW round-up events.
“We’re going to have a permanent facility where people can take these five days a week, 52 weeks a year, rather than waiting and hoping that there’s going to be a household hazardous waste round-up in your community (because) in Ashcroft and Cache Creek, it would be in one or the other usually every other year.”
Roden suggests the idea of having a year-round facility is to ensure these hazardous materials — not accepted at eco-depots or landfill sites — are not flushed down the drains or in curbside garbage bins.
“The eco-depots, the transfer stations, the sites in Kamloops and throughout the TNRD accept a lot of household hazardous waste as they fall under programs where the manufacturer pays to take them back and recycle them,” said Roden.
However, Roden says there are things that are not accepted at the eco-depots and the landfill sites, noting those items can be taken to the new HHW facility in Kamloops.
“The mystery packages you find when you’re cleaning up the shed, or you’re cleaning out some building that hasn’t been used for a while, or the back corners of a crawlspace or the cellar. You find this old crunchy container with something sloshing around inside and a label that you can’t read and you have no idea what’s in there.”
Roden says the new facility is expected to cost about $200,000 a year to operate, with the City of Kamloops tasked with paying half.
To compare, Roden says it was $50,000 to $75,000 a year to operate roughly three household hazardous waste round-up days.
“If you look at the cost of a three-day program as opposed to the cost of something that’s going to be five days a week, 52 weeks a year, it’s absolutely much more cost-effective,” she said.
“Hopefully it meets the needs of people who are also trying to do the right thing, by making it a little bit easier.”
Under the contract the TNRD approved Thursday, North-Wood Environmental Services Ltd. will operate the Household Hazardous Waste Facility in Kamloops over the next five years.