Coaldale residents contribute carloads to Beyond-the-Bin Recycling Roundup

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Sunny South News

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

Hundreds of Coaldale residents took advantage of the town’s hazardous waste recycling event, at its ‘Beyond-the-Bin Recycling Roundup’ on May 10, at the town shop. 

The household hazardous roundup event, sponsored by Alberta Recycling, was the first one held in several years in town and saw more than 100 vehicles drop off items including paint, old electronics, tires, light bulb tubes, used oil and filters, propane tanks, batteries and other household hazardous materials or chemicals,  including solvents and agricultural pesticides. 

“Primarily, we’re here for servicing the existing recycling programs within the province, which is paint recovery program, used oil, filters and  (oil) containers,” said Chris Nielsen, owner of DBS Environmental, the company hired by the Town of Coaldale to conduct the recycling event. “We’re also here to help educate that those services exist.”  

“We’re here for all the items and also to help with waste collectors for the blue  black and green bins to keep contamination out,” he added. “Contamination, whether it be electronics or batteries, paint, any chemical jars they put in, everything else can seriously effect first and foremost, the driver and the people handling that material and secondly it reduces its value when it gets to wherever its going or causes a problem.” 

The day saw a steady stream of residents dropping off materials, including Coaldale resident Josh Lawlor, who said the event was a great idea and helpful for town residents. 

“It’s extremely useful. It’s nice that we have somewhere in town and we don’t have to drive outside of Coaldale,” said Lawlor, who was dropping off some paint cans and an old TV. 

While there is a depot for paint and used oil, run by the Lethbridge Regional Waste Management Services Commission (LRWMSC) at Lethbridge County transfer site, and is accessible all-year-round, Nielsen noted that any registered depot in the province that collects tires, used oil, electronics or paint, will accept it from any jurisdiction. 

“The county transfer site here is open to anyone in the province of Alberta, not just the Town of Coaldale but to anyone. You pay fees for the end of life for those materials and that money is used to pay for and build the facilities to accept it back from anyone who pays that money,” explained Nielsen, noting people can take items to the county transfer station at any time of the year at no charge. 

All materials dropped off in Coaldale during the event are sent off to be recycled or destroyed at approved facilities at various locations in Alberta, said Nielsen.  

“Electronics recycling is not what you’d normally think. It will never been an electronic ever again …. if they bring us a laptop or computer, the data and the hard drives are destroyed,” he said. 

Nielsen said events like the one in Coaldale are important to help keep people safe, help local residents dispose of household hazardous material and help raise awareness about recycling those items. 

“We work under three primary goals – first and foremost is health, safety and security,” said Nielsen. “If you have old chemicals lying around it is a severe risk to children and people that don’t know what it is.”