Yellowknife (Feb 01/06) - City council voted to purchase recycling bins for downtown apartment dwellers, Monday night.

That will bring the total number of recycling outlets in the city to five.

The purchase cost for the four new bins is $60,000. They will be placed next to the Bison Hills apartment complex on 52nd Street, where there are also a number of other apartment buildings close by, including Fraser Tower.

Council approved the purchase after receiving a letter from Darron Pelley, regional manager for Northern Property REIT.

He complained about the lack of recycling outlets downtown. The nearest one to Bison Hills is on the corner where Franklin and School Draw avenues meet.

"We have a lot of apartment people who walk; they don't have vehicles," said Pelley. "Everybody wants us to get into recycling with garbage, and it's hard for me to push recycling to my residents when there is nothing close by to do some recycling."

Last November, Pelley got word that the city was scrapping the commercial portion of its garbage pick-up contract with Kavanaugh Brothers.

Pelley said Kavanaugh told him that private pick-up rates for Northern Property would be going up by 50 per cent this year. He hopes the recycling bins will bring down costs by reducing the amount of garbage going into regular garbage bins.

He is sure they will be well used.

"Within walking distance of 52nd Street I counted roughly 600 apartments, not counting the residential units that are there," Pelley said.

He said several vehicles - apparently abandoned - would have to be removed first before the recycling bins can be placed there.

The city takes newspaper, cardboard, milk jugs, office papers, tin cans and glass.

The city plans to add bins to collect box board from cereal boxes and the like in the future, said Bruce Underhay, manager of the solid waste facility.

The city has stopped accepting aluminum cans after the beverage container recycling depot opened on Old Airport Road, Underhay said.

However, noting that many people without vehicles may find the Old Airport Road depot too far a walk, Underhay said the city doesn't mind having a few cans dropped off in their outlets.

"If someone put one or two cans in with the tin can section that would be fine," said Underhay.

"We'd separate them here."

All councillors attending Monday night's meeting supported the recycling bin purchase, save one: Coun. Alan Woytuik.

He won't support recycling initiatives until the city provides a detailed cost analysis of the program.

"To me it doesn't make any sense encouraging people to recycle if we can't make economic sense of it," said Woytuik earlier in the day.