SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Do you want to toss out your City of Yellowknife recycling guide, pack all your unsorted recyclables into one box, leave the whole collection at curbside on your regular garbage pick-up day, and never think about it again?

Yellowknife's Frank England has been handling curbside recyling in the city for more than six years. The service isn't on the City of Yellowknife radar for anytime soon. England hopes more Yellowknifer's will consider his service. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo

Just call Frank England.

It’s been more than six years since England saw what he thought was an opportunity in Yellowknife to provide city-wide curbside recycling.

Starting with approximately 30 clients who had lost curbside recycling when a previous company stopped providing the service, England has since grown Go Green Recycling to more than 60 residential customers and 10 commercial clients.

“It's mostly been word-of-mouth," England said. "It needs to grow more. I could take a hundred more (clients) I’m sure.”

His service follows the schedule of regular weekly municipal garbage pick-up. England’s subscribers simply put out their recycling in a separate bin with their regular garbage and England takes it from there.

Although most of his business is residential customers, he has several commercial clients: N.J. Macpherson School, First Air, Senes Consultants, NWT Literacy Council, and Clark Builders, to name a few.

Commercial clients pay an individually-negotiated rate for his services based on volume. Residential customers pay a flat $250 per year, regardless of volume.

“That’s less than five dollars a week,” England said. “My business model was to keep my prices low and build volume. It’s probably not enough, but you’ve got to get people interested.”

“I think $250 is pretty cheap,” England added. “But I’m biased.”

Has he had the growth he was expecting?

“No,” England said. “But I don’t do much advertising and I don’t have my number in the Yellowpages. The biggest challenge is getting the word out.”

England’s services go beyond what you might expect from a recycling service.

For an extra $50 per year, he’ll provide a dog waste and kitty littler disposal. He also offers compost disposal, again for an additional $50 per year,.

“I take everything and put it in its right place,” England said. “The customer can feel good about that. Batteries go to battery disposal, not the landfill. I even take used (printer) ink cartridges to a recycler.”

Operating a small business that asks people to hand over a cheque for a year’s worth of service ahead of time meets with reluctance occasionally.

“One customer asked me how he could be sure I wouldn’t just take his money and disappear,” England recounted.

“I told him I’ve lived here 58 years. I’ve never lived anywhere else and I don’t plan on moving.”

“I’ve got roots here.”

If sorting your recyclables and making an extra trip to a recycling depot in the dead of winter leaves you less than enthusiastic about going green, England is hoping Go Green Recycling is what people are looking for.

“The main thing is to get the stuff recycled and get it out of the landfill.”