CML Properties is keeping a dumpster closed with duct tape until further notice.

(GLYNN BROTHEN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - Apartment and condo residents are hoarding their recyclables and waiting for bins to be unbolted while a strike continues to put recycling pickup on hold in the city.

“The bins are gonna be filled in seconds,” Kelson Group Property Manager Val Wouters says. “I’ve been hoarding all my stuff. If people are hoarding like me, it’s gonna be phenomenal."

Wouters, who manages five properties on the North Shore, says most of her tenants couldn’t take their recycling to other locations even if they wanted to; most don’t have vehicles. She commends her tenants for not placing recycling next to the bin or finding other places for it around the building, but suspects some people are taking it to the garbage dumpster to dispose of it.

This is the third week of striking by Steelworkers Union employees at Emterra Environmental, the company contracted by the city to sort its recyclables.

The notice on the Kelson Group dumpster.

(GLYNN BROTHEN / iNFOnews.ca)

Most of the Kelson Group properties didn’t have recycling dumpsters until the last couple of years. Residents used to toss all used items, including recyclables, in on-site garbage dumpsters.

“It’s a shame for our landfills,” Kelson Group’s Vice-President Kelly Fawcett says. “We are a little concerned if this continues. We’re going to have to come up with something.”

Property managers for CML Properties, which manages more than 100 properties in Kamloops, also locked up dumpsters until further notice. Company owner Matt Wallin says he hasn’t heard many complaints but notes people are putting recyclables in the trash. In some cases the company has ordered more garbage trips to certain properties.

“At first it created some work where we had to go and lock bins. We’ve put notices out (and) we’ve taken bins away. Since we’ve done all that it hasn’t been overly arduous. I haven’t heard a lot of complaining."

Public Works Manager Jen Fretz says council plans to discuss options to determine how to move forward. Fretz notes even though recycling pickup has been put on hold, there has been no substantial increase in landfill tonnage or illegal dumping.

Fretz says the city is not considering a refund for the three weeks of missed collection. 

A Kelson Group dumpster is bolted shut on Dalgleish Drive.

(GLYNN BROTHEN / iNFOnews.ca)

To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

— With a file from Dana Reynolds.

News from © iNFOnews, 2015