By the end of this month, Eastman Recycling will be pulling their services from Piney, Stuartburn, and Buffalo Point... fortunately the three local governments have a plan.

In what Piney Chief Administrative Officer Martin Van Osch feels is a forward-thinking step, the two municipalities have partnered with the First Nation Reserve to create their own recycling system.

“This is a real landmark to bring these three partners together to provide a valuable service to our residents down here in southeastern Manitoba,” he remarks. “This is communities working together for a collaborative benefit.”

racts and changes in those contracts,” he offers. “At the end of the day, we will have a service that we govern and control to ensure we are taking care of our ratepayers' needs.

Aware that their dependence on Eastman Recycling will be obsolete by April 1st, when the company has said they will stop visiting the area, a committee with representatives from each community is racing to secure their own recycling truck and an employee to drive it before then.

Stuartburn CAO Lucie Maynard says it will be difficult to acquire all of the capital assets they need in time and notes a contingency plan may be necessary to bridge the gap between Eastman Recycling’s departure and the launch of the regional initiative.

By committing so much thought and energy towards this project, Maynard and Van Osch are both highlighting the need to be fiscally responsible as well as the need to be environmentally sustainable. To Buffalo Point representative and councillor Herman Green, it is the latter point that matters most.

“We are trying to protect our land and water and that, to us as a First Nation, is more important than the money,” he says. 

Green notes Buffalo Point has a garbage and recycling pit that will need to be decommissioned in the coming years as the threat of seepage grows. While the risk is admittedly minimal right now he says his council wants to decommission the pit before it becomes an environmental issue. He believes having a regional recycling system in place before that happens is one way of being proactive.

“We’re trying to do what we can to preserve the future for our kids,” he says, “and that’s what this is about.”

Whether they will be ready to use their new system by April 1st or not remains to be seen, but all three communities continue to be unanimous in working towards a common goal.