by Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 16/98) - Yellowknifers may not be able to collect a refund on pop containers, but they still can recycle those cans, as well as glass and paper.

"It gets frustrating because people think they can't do it," said solid waste foreman David Neufeld. "And every little bit makes a difference."

Large divided bins at the Yk arena, at Sir John Franklin high school and at the Co-op store are equipped to handle newspaper, glass, aluminum drink cans and tin soup cans.

Separate dumpsters for the above, along with others for cardboard, white paper and colored paper, are at the solid waste facility.

The city's recycling program breaks even, with profitable aluminum cans sold to an Edmonton scrap dealer for about $720 per bale. That rate subsidizes much of the loss from sales of paper bales to Crown Packaging.

Glass is crushed and buried separately with the intention that it will be excavated when glass recycling is viable.

"I hope one day it can be brought up, otherwise I'm storing it for nothing," Neufeld said about the glass.

Neufeld expects a dumpster for plastic milk jugs to arrive within the next month, though that container will not accept other plastics, such as bleach containers.

Two new large newspaper containers will also arrive soon, to be placed in the town recycling depots, he said.

"Right now, newspaper fills up right away so these will really help out," he says. There is still a lot of room at the solid waste facility to store the newspaper and it would save burial space.

Refunds can be had for beer, wine and spirit bottles and cans at the Bottle Shop and the Sportsman.

"If people don't want to come in themselves they could always call non-profit organizations and they will come -- they're always looking for money," said Adam Pich, who runs the Bottle Shop.

"The NWT is probably one of the biggest consumers of pop cans," industrial waste specialist Chris Wolnick said, urging people to separate recyclable from their trash to save landfill space.