The Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) has opened a new recycling depot at the Knockholt Landfill and Houston and Area G Transfer Station, starting Aug. 15. RDBN has undertaken this initiative to revamp recycling efforts in Houston and its surroundings, aiming for greater efficiency and environmental sustainability.
As Janette Derksen, RDBN’s diversion supervisor, explained, “The decision to add a depot to the Houston Transfer Station (at the Knockholt Landfill) was to provide a better, more effective recycling program for the community of Houston and area. The service now will be the same as our other depots across the RDBN. This program will be more cost-effective for the RDBN in terms of annual budgets.”
Derksen further elaborated on the site selection, stating, “The location was chosen due to a lack of land available for such a facility in the community. Even though it is eight minutes from town, we have had success at other transfer station depots that are at similar distances away.”
Residents may wonder about the fate of the existing Houston Recycle Depot. According to Derksen, the new Knockholt depot will offer additional recycling options for residents, focusing primarily on residential print, paper, and packaging recycling. As Derksen put it, “The Houston Bottle Depot will still be in operation, and we understand will still offer a lot of other recycling programs like electronics, small appliances, lights and lamps, smoke alarms and deposit containers. Best to contact them directly on the services they will maintain.”
However, the RDBN will be closing the public drop bins for cardboard and hard plastics at the existing Houston depot at the end of September. This may affect commercial businesses that rely on these bins.
Derksen highlighted the main differences between the Knockholt Depot and the one located in the town of Houston. The Houston Transfer Station depot will mainly focus on the Recycle BC program, while the Houston Bottle Depot may continue to offer all the other recycling programs, including deposit containers. In the future, the RDBN plans to create a one-stop-drop location at the site, except for the deposit container programs, differentiating the two depots further.
The RDBN operates two sub-regional landfills, and eight waste transfer stations, four of which have recycling depots, and two have small-scale satellite depots.
The new recycling depot at Knockholt will have the same hours of operation as the transfer station, i.e. Monday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.