A year-round hazardous waste depot is an option for the Flin Flon.
In a letter to Flin Flon city council dated August 25, La Verne Hinzman, chair of the Flin Flon and District Environment Council, reminded council of an opportunity through Product Care Manitoba.
“Any municipality can apply for a loan to build a hazardous waste depot,” explained Deb Odegaard, Flin Flon Recycling Centre administrator. “Each year the facility operates, part of that loan disappears, and by the end of 10 years, if it is still going, the loan is forgiven.”
As such, the cost to the local community would be minimal, she said.
Odegaard explained that the facility would need only a basic building without heat or electricity, similar to one currently used to collect oil. She suggests that a building could be constructed at the landfill site, where there is room and other collection facilities exist.
“The current annual collection of hazardous materials does not meet the needs of the community,” the letter to council reads. “It is our fear that many of these hazardous materials are being released into the environment at the landfill and other unsuitable places in the surrounding area.
“We are just wanting to remind council about this opportunity and encourage the city to take advantage of it,” said Odegaard.
Council referred the matter to engineering services at its Sept. 1 meeting.
