One person’s junk is another’s treasure, now more than ever with new Calgary eco centres streamlining their processes to keep more recyclables out of the landfill.
On July 17, 2024 the city announced the changes made to implement eco centres, formerly ‘throw n’ go’s’, at multiple landfills around the city. These changes focussed on making the centres more user friendly by putting all the bins in a single location, accepting a new variety of drop offs, and improving signage and access in the area.
“This is an opportunity for customers to be able to have a single simple drop off point and be able to sort those materials on site to keep those things out of the landfill to preserve that valuable landfill space,” said Elias Tomaras project manager of special projects for the City of Calgary.
New drop offs include furniture, clothes, toys, electronics and bikes as part of the reuse program. The city is partnered with Goodwill Industries to keep usable items out of the landfill and make them useful again.
“Once the materials are dropped off at our Eco centers in our reuse area, Goodwill takes on the responsibility of ensuring that those materials are reused or recycled,” said Tomaras.
These changes were tested at the Spyhill Eco Centre and saw great results. The pilot saw 29 per cent more oversized cardboard recycled, 163 per cent more reuse items, 30 per cent more electronics, and 25 per cent more properly sorted metal.
“Prior to the eco centers, we had what were referred to as ‘throw n’ go’ but the older ‘throw n’ go’ design really prioritized garbage disposal more than certain other materials. So now with the new eco center design, we’ve made it easier and more user friendly to have a single drop off point for Calgarians to be able to sort their materials on site, said Tomaras.
These new centres will also be making use of the new styrofoam recycling program announced earlier this year as part of the new materials being accepted. The program in conjunction with their partners at Styro-Go to repurpose styrofoam into new products.
“Eco centers accept just about anything you can think of with the exception of certain dangerous materials like explosives and radioactive waste for example,” said Tomaras.
Eco centres have a list of free and paid drop off materials, with there being no charge for a drop off consisting entirely of free materials. For the paid materials anything under 250 kilograms is subject to a $25 flat rate, anything exceeding this is then charged by weight.
| Free Items | Items with charges |
| – Automotive tires – Household hazardous waste – Electronics – Blue cart recyclables – Packaging foam – Clothes and textiles – Automotive materials – Propane tanks | – Yard waste – Drywall – Scrap metal – Small engine – Bikes – Furniture – Garbage – Appliances with freon – Appliances |
“It’s important that Calgarians are aware that they will be required to sort their materials once they arrive on site. So ideally, you have your materials as sorted and neatly organized as possible within your vehicle so that when you do arrive on site, it’s much easier for you to be able to sort the materials into the appropriate bins,” said Tomaras.
Calgarians can find additional information and details about how to make their drop off easier at calgary.ca/ecocentre.
