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MERRITT HERALD TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2015 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
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Recycling depot finds new indoor home By Michael Potestio THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
The Merritt Return-It Depot has found a new, permanent home near its former location. The facility has set up shop at 2352 Clapperton Ave. Its previous temporary site was the corner of Quilchena Avenue and Blair Street. The new recycling facility is a steel building and all sorting is done indoors. The property also has a yard that will be used for storage. Merritt Return-It Depot owner Pauline Warren said the new location is ready to receive recyclables, but there are still a few things that need to be completed, such as flooring and the installation of a no-touch hand-wash station and an automatic sliding door. “Slowly but surely we’re going to fix it up, but we didn’t want to be closed for too long,” Warren said. The depot was closed for two weeks during the holiday season last month. The Merritt Return-It Depot reopened Jan. 6 and will continue to collect all the same recyclables it did before, including electronics. Warren said she plans to build a warehouse behind the building and hopes to start metal recycling, which will allow the depot to accept items such as refrigerators and stoves. She said having an indoor facility makes for a clean operation and people who come to sort their bottles aren’t exposed to the weather.
Merritt Return-It Depot owner Pauline Warren was hard at work last Friday. After two years of searching, she has finally found a permanent indoor facility for the recycling service at 2352 Clapperton Ave., pictured below. Michael Potestio/Herald
Another plus is the facility’s permanence, she said, as relocation is no longer an issue. City of Merritt planning and development manager
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Sean O’Flaherty said some of the positives of the bottle depot’s new location are its proximity to downtown Merritt and the fact the depot is on a property
zoned for recycling depots. O’Flaherty said this new location isn’t in a high-traffic area, but is in a “transition zone” between residential and commercial
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areas. “We have to mitigate any issues that might arise in a transition zone, parking being one of them,” he said. He said the city is working with the recycling depot to ensure it provides parking spots on the property. “It’s an important service and important business for our community, and now it’s well located and should be very successful,” O’Flaherty said. The facility was in need of a new and permanent location as its temporary use permit for its former Blair Street location — which isn’t zoned for recy-
cling depots use — was extended for one year last spring, and was about to expire this coming May. Merritt’s zoning bylaw only allows recycling depots to operate on property zoned for service commercial uses. Last August, city council accepted a land use amendment application aimed at establishing the recycling depot at the Railyard Mall. It was met with opposition at a subsequent public hearing, and the application was defeated by city council. The recycling depot at its new location is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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