The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN) might receive almost $290,000 for recycling its scrap metals currently sitting in the region’s waste management facilities.
At its June 20 board of directors meeting, the RDBN agreed to award a contract to Schnitzer Steel Canada, a metal recycling company that has facilities in Surrey, Victoria, Campbell River and Cassidy.
At Schnitzer’s pay rate of $96.57 per metric tonne of recyclable metal, the RDBN would receive $289,710 for the estimated 3,000 tonnes of metal.
The contract with Schnitzer runs until Dec. 31, 2020.
Schnitzer and Richmond Steel Recycling were the two companies that responded to the RDBN’s request for cost quotations on B.C. Bid. Richmond Steel offered a rate of $57.91 per metric tonne.
“Typically we collect at our sites 1,500 metric tonnes every two years at all of our eight facilities. We’ve done that for the last 15-16 years,” as Rory McKenzie, Director of Environmental Services told the board.
“Since we put the no salvage bylaw in place it has doubled. The last go-around we had 3,000 metric tonnes. It’s double. Now it’s almost to the point where we need to get it done every year. That’s how big our piles are.”
The no-salvage bylaw, enacted about two years ago banned people from going into RDBN waste sites and taking metal away, sometimes to sell it. The RDBN was losing revenue as a result of the salvaging, McKenzie told Black Press.
“[Schnitzer is] going to start in Smithers and clean it right out and work their way east until they’re done. They’ve got two years to get it all done. They won’t go to a site more than once in two years, unless it’s taking them a long time. But if a site is full again, within the two years they might go back for a second crack,” he explained.
The RDBN’s request on B.C. Bid included the expectations that the contractor provide consistent service to the district, give proof that all collected metals would be recycled and not tossed into landfills and that the RDBN receive revenue for all collected scrap metal.
The metals are to be taken from the following transfer stations: Burns Lake, Southside, Granisle, Fraser Lake Rural, Vanderhoof, Fort St.James, Smithers/Telkwa and the Knockholt Landfill site.
Blair McBride
Multimedia reporter
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