The Thompson Recycling Centre (TRC) has "suspended service until further notice," according to Valdine Flaming, communications officer for the City of Thompson, in an e-mail sent out just after 5 p.m. Jan. 29.
In the e-mail she says that all recycling - both curbside pickup and drop off depots - have been suspended and residents are asked instead to store their rinsed and sorted recycling for the time being.
"It appears that food residue on recyclables has attracted rodents, resulting in a health and safety concern for workers at the TRC," she says. "Recycling operations will resume as soon as possible." Flaming says she currently has no other information to pass on about the incident.
Melissa Branconnier, co-chair of the board of directors for the TRC, says mice are the rodents in question. An exterminator is scheduled to be coming up from Winnipeg on Thursday and will follow up with the centre to ensure the extermination was successful.
Branconnier also says the problem was caused by two factors.
"One is dealing with the food residue in the recyclables that come in - it's something we've always dealt with. The other issue is that with the new waste collection system we've seen an increase in the amount of recyclables coming to the centrewe're just overloaded with material, and the problem when you're overloading material is that you're creating a nesting ground for them [the mice]. They have food coming in from the soiled product and all of a sudden you've got what we've got going right now - which is way too many mice."
Branconnier says that since the incident happened the TRC has worked with the City of Thompson's two-person health and safety staff to draft a health and safety document. The document is in place now and workers are currently at the TRC cleaning things up and preparing the space for the exterminator.
Branconnier says that during this whole ordeal the workers at the TRC have gone above and beyond to do their duties. She says if all goes well with the exterminator recycling services should resume again next week. She is also confident that this problem won't happen again once the recyclable material is picked up in the same way as the garbage - with a Labrie truck, equipped with a camera to ensure that no contaminated material makes it in to the centre.
It is the third time in a slightly more than a year that the recycling centre has suspended curbside blue box and depot pick-ups. Operations were also suspended for a several weeks in two separate shutdowns in December 2008 and January 2009.
Recently, Mayor Tim Johnston has stated that now is the time for the city to take ownership of the ongoing problems at both the TRC and the Thompson Zoo. Both organizations have had visible problems over the last couple of years and both are run by arms-length boards of directors, with payroll and certain other administrative functions are processed by the city of Thompson on their behalf even though they are not city employees. Both the zoo and the recycling centre receive their major sources of funding annually from the city.
Earlier in January the TRC was dealing with the complications of an excess of recyclable materials - some of which came in contaminated and others that became contaminated by the elements while being stored outside due to lack of space in the centre. The contaminated materials ended up in the local garbage dump, operated by the Local Government District (LGD) of Mystery Lake.
On Nov. 25 the lunchroom at the TRC was shut down by an inspector from Manitoba Workplace Health and Safety after an inspection was completed. Then-manager of the TRC Orla Banbury-Angus told the Thompson Citizen that the lunchroom "was just filthy" with no fan or ventilation system and the location of the room in too close of proximity to the actual recycling, leading to contamination.
Despite the problems the TRC is facing, the Manitoba Product Stewardship Corporation (MPSC)'s 2009 community recycling report said that overall, residents in Thompson recycled 61.7 kilograms per personal last year, resulting in an "A" on the MPSC's grading system.
Deputy mayor Harold Smith, who also sits on the TRC board, said earlier this month preparations are underway to ensure the TRC is ready for recycling numbers to go up and even double in the near future.
