A new SARCAN recycling depot, and a new location for the Vocational Training Centre for the Wor-Kin Shop, should be ready to open this fall. Construction of a new 11,000-square-foot warehouse is progressing quickly at 1800 Ebel Road.
A new SARCAN recycling depot, and a new location for the Vocational Training Centre for the Wor-Kin Shop, should be ready to open this fall. Construction of a new 11,000-square-foot warehouse is progressing quickly at 1800 Ebel Road.
Andria Brady, executive director for the Wor-Kin Shop, said that the expanded space will definitely improve services for the SARCAN depot.
"The new front-counter area, which is where clients bring their recycled items, is the same size of our current depot," said Brady. Which means the 6,000-square-feet facility for the new depot is close to triple the size of what they currently offer.
The building design will incorporate enhanced customer service lanes, enhanced material handling capabilities and improved staff facilities.
"There will be four receiving chutes, instead of the three we currently have at the East Avenue facility," said Brady.
In addition to having more room for customers to access the recycling centre, there is more room for the staff themselves. There will also be more-defined areas for the till, and the offices.
Another way to improve accessibility, is that the recycling hopper will stick out of the separating wall slightly, instead of staff having to walk to the back area to reach the hopper.
"It will also be a lot quieter," said Brady, noting the insulation in the separating wall will help reduce the noise for their clients and staff. She was also pleased with the amount of windows, which will let in more natural light into the facility.
In addition to the office, there will be a separate cash room, lunch room for staff, washrooms and a mechanical room.
For the receiving area, located on the south side of the new facility, there will be three loading doors. The first two loading bays will be for the semis, while the third can be used by bulk orders (such as bottle drives).
"At the current facility on East Avenue, bulk orders back up to the side door, and bring them in a bag at a time, which can be quite inconvenient in the winter time," said Brady.
"Now with a separate bulk order bay, clients will be able to back into the warehouse itself, and there will be no need to keep a door open," added Brady.
The move of the SARCAN depot into the new facility has to be coordinated through the head office, since the Weyburn facility will also be receiving some new equipment. Installation of the new equipment will be done by SARCAN representatives.
All materials collected at SARCAN are recycled into everyday, usable products. No materials are ever put in landfills.
SARCAN accepts all non-refillable beverage containers for recycling. When containers are brought to SARCAN, the customer is refunded the deposit that was paid on the container at the time of purchase.
They also have a paint recycling program, and can collect end-of-life or unwanted electronics. Full details on what can be recycled can be found on their website: www.sarcan.ca.
The new Vocational Training Centre will house the agency's woodshop along with the paper and cardboard recycling operations; providing employment opportunities for those with intellectual disabilities, and supplying products and services to Weyburn and southeast Saskatchewan. It will take up 5,000 square feet of the warehouse.
Inside the new training centre will be an office, mechanical room, lunch room and washrooms, and plenty of space to recycle paper and cardboard. There is also a private room for confidential paper-shredding.
The new facility for the Vocational Training Centre will be the same size of what the Wor-Kin Shop offers at their current location, but it will be a more convenient space as the woodshop and the paper recycling will be in the same area.
One of the features of the new Vocational Training Centre is a heated cement floor.
Weekly pickup service of paper and cardboard is available to all business, condominium/apartment and school customers in Weyburn. Their truck will come out and pick up office paper, newspapers or flyers, shredded documents and/or clean cardboard and recycle it.
These products are baled by program participants and shipped via semi load to a broker in Regina who then ships them to recycling mills to be made back into paper and other products.
In the woodshop, the Wor-Kin Shop offers program participants the opportunity to participate in a work training environment. They focus on safety - the use of proper equipment for the job, as well as safe work procedures.
Participants learn how to use all machines and equipment in the shop and work as a part of a team to create various wood products for local oil field, agriculture, construction and mobile home/RTM industries.
There will be plenty of parking space outside the warehouse too, with 25 spots available, compared to the eight that are available at the current site.
