The recycling program at Blue Sky Opportunities in Altona has been vastly improved thanks to a new 15,000 square foot facility.

It has been nearly a year since the organization moved into the $2.5 million building and Richard Neufeld, general manager for Blue Sky, said the transition was seamless.

"We were a little concerned about people adjusting to the sorting procedure because it's completely different than what we have before, but it took a day and everybody knew exactly what they were doing."

According to Neufeld, the new facility has also provided an improved work environment with air conditioning, in-floor heat, LED lighting and better air quality. "There's just no comparison to how we were

Blue Sky Opportunities General Manager, Richard Neufeld. operating before," he noted.

Since operations launched at the plant in June 2017, Blue Sky Opportunities has been able to change how it recycles and what it can process. The program now accepts aluminium, tin, plastic, glass, paper and cardboard, and thanks to a custom conveyor system, Neufeld said workers are better able to sort items to a more finite degree.

This new sorting system also saw the introduction of larger household recycle carts and the implementation of a co-mingle system where residents no longer had to partially sort their recyclables, but rather they could dump it all into one big bin. At the same time, Blue Sky Opportunities moved from a bi-weekly pick-up schedule to a weekly plan.

The organization has also been able to increase its recycling capacity in the last year. In fact, the plant is now processing curbside and business recycling for the town of Morris. Statistics for the past year will be highlighted in a report due out in July but Neufeld said between the 80 metric tonnes collected in Morris and the 500 metric tonnes brought in from Altona and Rhineland, Blue Sky Opportunities processed about 600 metric tonnes in 2017/18. The new facility has the capacity to process 2,000 metric tonnes annually.

Also new for the organization is the opportunity to market and sell the finished bailed recyclables.

"Before the Town and the R.M. had an agreement where all the recyclables went to Winkler (Gateway Resources) and then they sold them and they received the benefit of the sale of the goods," explained Neufeld. He added that the money earned from the sale of these goods is actually off-setting the cost of recycling for the area. "Because when we get the value of the goods we reduce the invoices for the Town and the R.M., so it's making it more efficient and cost-effective."

For anyone that is unsure of the process and wants to better understand how recycling operations work at Blue Sky Opportunities, Neufeld invites them to swing by the shop. "We'd be more than happy to give you a tour of the facility so you can better understand what we do and why we do things the way we do."

The plant is also home to the organzation's combine chain assembly line.