New Westminster wants more information about a recycling facility that’s coming to Queensborough.
Multi-Material B.C. has selected Green By Nature to manage operations of a 179,000-square-foot facility on Gifford Street that will open in 2015.
Coun. Bill Harper said the city has little information about the proposal and asked staff to report back with analysis about potential impacts of the facility. He’d like to get more information such as the number of vehicles and trucks accessing the site and the time of day the facility will be operating.
“This could be quite detrimental, particularly to the casino,” he said. “These trucks could be driving through their parking lot.”
Harper said he found it “astounding” that council member had never heard about the facility until they read about it in the newspaper.
Bev Grieve, the city’s director of development services, said staff approved a businsss license for the contractor as the usages conforms to the site’s zoning. “Our normal practice is if a business is in accordance with the zoning on the site, we will approve it.”
Grieve said the licence didn’t state that it was related to the Multi-Material B.C. program.
Even though a business licence has been approved, city administrator Lisa Spitale said the city could sit down with the business owner and operate and address particular issues regarding the site.
Coun. Betty McIntosh said the site formerly housed a paper manufacturing plant, so the new use is a reutilization of an industrial site with a new industrial use. She said it’s unlikely that trucks would be going through the casino parking lot, as that didn’t occur with the previous business on the site.
“This has been an industrial area forever,” she said. “I don’t share the concerns councilors have been mentioning.”
Coun. Chuck Puchmayr said he’d like to have information about questions such as the facility’s hours, nature of work taking place on the site and traffic volumes. He noted that trucks could potentially impact local roads.
Harper suggested it could be “seriously problematic” if the facility ended up being the Multi-Material B.C. main plastic recycling facility in the Lower Mainland.
According to Multi-Material B.C. website, it will take on the management of end-of-life packing and printed paper in British Columbia. It’s also expected to enable B.C. residents to recycle new categories of packaging that aren’t always available in current curbside or depot recycling programs, including milk cartons, foam polystyrene, plant pots, aluminum foil packaging, plastic film packaging and drink cups.
