The City of Calgary says nearly 2,000 households did not have their blue carts collected on Wednesday following a morning fire at a recycling sorting facility.
“We’re happy to report that all employees were evacuated safely from the Cascades Recovery recycling facility this morning,” said Sharon Howland, leader of program management with the City of Calgary’s Waste and Recycling Service “There was a fire reported at the facility at 9:00 a.m. today. As a result of that fire, we had to suspend blue cart service for the afternoon.”
The fire in the facility in the 10300 block of 46 Street S.E. prompted the City to halt the collection of blue carts.
“We figure we have missed about 2,000 households out of an 80,000 household collection day. We’re asking Calgarians that have missed their blue cart collection today to hang on to that material until next Wednesday which is their next blue cart collection day.”
Calgarians who are unable to store their recyclables are encouraged to take the items to a community recycling depot.
Howland says there was no significant damage to the building but recyclables within the building were damaged. The cause of the fire has not been released.
“We will be able to resume sorting operations tomorrow morning at 6:30 so no further blue cart collection will be suspended.”
Wednesday's fire was not the first fire to occur at Cascades Recovery. "We usually see a handful of fires a year of different sizes. This one was fairly large so we did have to suspend service," said Howland. "They couldn't continue to receive our trucks."
Howland says previous fires at the facility have been the result of the improper disposal of hazardous materials including vehicle batteries and propane tanks.
