Saint John residents forced to use pop-up want permanent recycling solution

Lisa Morris is an avid recycler but, living in the South end of Saint John without a car, she finds it hard to get to the blue bins.

"The biggest, I think, challenge I find is transportation or accessibility," she said.

And it's only gotten harder since the land where the blue bin depot was located was sold earlier this year.

The Fundy Region Solid Waste Commission has been running a pop-up collection depot on Sunday afternoons in the parking lot at the corner of Carmarthen and Queen streets from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. to address the recycling needs of the south end.

But the service ends this weekend and there's no word on whether it will be extended. Residents of the south end are calling for a more accessible, and permanent, recycling solution.

Morris herself finds it difficult to visit the pop-up Sunday afternoons because she normally works.

"Unfortunately, I work until 4:30 on Sunday, so I just don't have the window to still continue to recycle," she said.

On a rare Sunday off, however, she has filled her wagon with, well, a wagon-load of recycling.

"It's been my trusty wagon for a number of years," she said. "I fill it up with my recycling and and bring it down."

There is no curbside pickup recycling anywhere in Saint John, and residents have to drive to blue bin depots located in parking lots of various grocery stores. But a lot of residents in the south end don't have cars.

The pop-up was set up as a six-week pilot project while the commission looked for a more permanent solution.

At 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoons, a Fundy Region Solid Waste Commission truck parks for four hours waiting for people to bring their recyclables. Residents can sort them into two categories, plastic or paper. A driver sits with the truck the whole time.

"It's basically a little trial we've been running," said Brenda MacCallum, public relations and program development officer with the commission.

It has seen mixed results. This past weekend was one of the busiest yet — with 30 people dropping off around 70 kilograms of recycling — but many weekends have been quiet.

"It's hard to judge ... what is the number that we should be getting to call this a success," MacCallum said.

Mary LeSage lives in the south end and is also the part-time operations manager of the community group People United in the Lower South End, or PULSE. She has made a big effort to promote the pop-up and even goes herself.

But she acknowledges that it may not be convenient for everyone.

"Summer months, people are away," she said. "They don't want to be tied down to a certain time. And I get that I've, you know, I've made the point of being around for those for an hour or so just so I can get myself there."

PULSE runs a bagged-lunch program and saves up all its recycling to bring to the depot to promote it in the south end.

But LeSage acknowledges "we need a more permanent solution that's there 24/7."

The challenge, MacCallum said, is that recycling depots require a large amount of space and there aren't a lot of vacancies in the south end.

"We need a spot that is accessible for residents that our trucks can easily manoeuvre and get around," she said.

If residents can't make it to the pop-up on Sundays there are other bins in the city. The closest one is on Rothesay Avenue, which for Lisa Morris is about a half-hour walk from her south end home.

For Morris, the perfect solution would be curbside pickup. She thinks her neighbours would recycle more and believes it's something that could bring the community together.

"I guess for a lot of walkers they just don't really see the purpose of recycling because it seems to be really hard," she said.

Curbside pickup falls under the jurisdiction of the City of Saint John.

In an emailed statement, the city said transportation and environment services staff are looking into the solid waste collection in Saint John and are hoping to present a report to city council by the end of the summer.