The Sanitation Supervisor for Steinbach calls it unfortunate and frustrating when commenting on the recycling habits of people in Steinbach and area.

Eldon Wallman is reacting to the story we told earlier this month of an entire load of recycling from Mitchell that was contaminated by a single jug of oil. The jug had been placed inside a recycling tote and then burst inside the truck after being crushed. The oil inside the jug contaminated the entire load of a week's worth of recycling from residents of Mitchell.

"I can't believe people want to do that," says Wallman. "It's unfortunate, but yes, it's very frustrating on the part of our staff at the landfill and for myself."

But, at the same time, Wallman says it is a regular occurrence to have loads of recycling not fit for delivery to Eastman Recycling. For example, Wallman explains there are 28 bins in Steinbach that are used by businesses for recycling cardboard. He credits business owners with wanting to do the right thing but says, unfortunately, there are people in our community who are contaminating those loads after hours.

"Sometimes it is stuff like oil, we get paint, we get fish guts, we get all kinds of things in there," says Wallman. "We can't bring that to Eastman Recycling and that's not fair to the people who are sorting that material by hand. It's just not a safe environment."

According to Wallman, this summer alone, probably half of their loads from these bins in Steinbach were never even delivered to Eastman Recycling because staff recognized the loads as contaminated.

Wallman says if a load of recycling is delivered to Eastman, but then determined to be contaminated, it costs the city money. That is because each load is now being handled two or three times, adding to the costs.

Whether all loads are being contaminated deliberately or out of ignorance is not known. Wallman suggests in some cases it could be that people new to the area are continuing habits learned in their former communities where these items were in fact recyclable.

Wallman says they need to do a better job educating business owners to take care of their bins. He suggests they may have to consider locking the bins and allowing only shop owners to access them.

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Oil Container Destroys Recycling Load In Mitchell