SARCAN celebrates with ribbon cutting

The new SARCAN facility has been open to customers since the beginning of the month, but the building’s official ribbon cutting took place yesterday.  

Kevin Acton, director of operations with SARC (SARCAN Division), recalled being at the grand opening of the first SARCAN depot in Moose Jaw in June 1988.  

“It’s a pleasure to come back 36 years later and be part of the grand opening of the new Moose Jaw depot.” 

He spoke about the opening of the original depot on Manitoba Street. “Part of the excitement was the uncertainty of this new container – this aluminum can – that was introduced into Saskatchewan.” 

Environment Minister Christine Tell brought greetings on behalf of the Province of Saskatchewan. “This moment marks not only the opening of a brand-new building, but also a celebration of our shared commitment to environmental stewardship.” 

She expressed gratitude to SARCAN’s employees. “Your tireless efforts have made Moose Jaw one of the busiest recycling centres in the province, handling more than 17 million containers last year alone.” 

She pointed to SARCAN’s employment of 900 people across their depots, plants, and offices during the peak summer season, as well as SARCAN’s collection of 84 per cent of the beverage containers sold in Saskatchewan last year.  

“Let’s not forget that remarkable milestone achieved last year – SARCAN recycled its ten billionth container,” she added.  

Amy McNeil, executive director of SARC/SARCAN Recycling spoke about providing employees with the best experience possible.  

“They're dealing with messy containers, and dirty work, but that doesn’t mean that the environment that they work within also needs to be like that.” 

Valerie Budd-Pritchard, executive director of Moose Jaw Diversified Services and president of the board of directors of SARC commended the depot’s employees. “We are so very very fortunate to be surrounded by good people.” 

She also spoke about appreciating customers coming to recycle at the facility. “Since opening in 1988, Moose Jaw Sarcan Depot has served over 1,655,000 customers." 

Carl Paulhus has been working with SARCAN on and off for 15 years, and said he’s been enjoying the new facility so far. “The experience has been good. I really enjoy this new facility now. It makes it a lot easier for us now, counting stuff so we don’t have to lift big heavy totes anymore or dump bags.” 

Carl Paulhus

He said his fellow employees are hyped and excited with the new facility.  

Attendees to the grand opening were offered a tour. Jane Hubbard-Richards, communication and culture coordinator with SARC/SARCAN Recycling, spoke about the flattening equipment. “With the lids off and the high efficiency flattening equipment that we have, we can ship up to four times as much material.” 

“Each year when we do our environmental sustainability report, we see the number of trailers decreasing, but our containers are always going up. It's this really neat trend of using a whole lot less resources and trucks and everything to ship even more material.” 

SARCAN has 73 depots and 2 processing plants in Saskatchewan.