The Airdrie East Lake Recycling Depot is a place to bring all your recycleables and even some dangerous goods for disposal, and is offered as a service to all residents of Airdrie. The geocache is located just outside of the recycling facility so that it's accessible 24/7, even though the actual facility does have operating hours and is closed (gated) after hours. If you wish to use the facility, take note of the seasonal hours:
- Oct - Apr: Wed 0900-2000, Thu-Sun 0900-1700, Mon-Tue Closed
May - Sep: Tue, Sat, Sun 0900-1700, Wed-Fri 0900-2000, Mon Closed- May - Sep (temp COVID19 hours): Wed-Sun 0900-1700, Mon-Tue Closed
When I moved from Calgary to Airdrie, one of the first things that impressed me was Airdrie's forward-thinking approach to waste reduction and diversion from the landfill. Airdrie has had the curbside compost ("green cart") program since 2014 (whereas Calgary only started in mid/late 2017), and they never introduced a curbside black cart program (and limited garbage to a single bag on garbage day, with additional bags needing to be tagged) in order to reduce what goes into the landfill. While Airdrie didn't introduce the curbside blue cart program until early 2017 (whereas Calgary had it since 2009), Airdrie provided both the Eastside and Westside recycling drop-off locations to take in all the blue cart materials. They've since closed the Westside drop off site (was in the parking lot of a home improvement store), while the Eastside depot continues to service residents for dropoffs of anything that doesn't go in the blue cart or is in excess or too large.
In addition to the usual recycleable materials (must be sorted):
- Cardboard
- Plastic bags/bubble wrap/film
- Plastics (Type 1-7)
- Mixed paper (phone books, newspaper, books, etc.)
- White paper (printer paper, etc.)
- Glass food jars (clean, no labels)
- Metal food cans (but not scrap metal)
You may be surprised to learn that the Eastside recycling depot also accepts:
- Used engine oil and oil filters!
- Oil jugs/containers!
- Antifreeze!
- Fluorescent lightbulbs!
- Electronics (computers, printers, TVs, keyboards, stereos, cell phones, etc.)
- Empty Propane tanks (30lb or less)
- Empty Aerosol cans
- Styrofoam!
- Batteries (vehicle, rechargeable, alkaline)!
- Grass and leaves (but no sod, dirt, rocks, etc.) - small residential quantities only
- Branches - small residential quantities only
But wait, that's not all! This depot also offers:
- A free book exchange library
- A place to drop off old bikes and scooters! (Free to drop off, $10 to pick up kids bikes, $10-20 for adult bikes)
- Bins for clothing donations!
In Calgary, it was often a challenge to find all the different facilities that could accept all the various items since there wasn't a one-stop shop.
Please use care if visiting during operating hours, as there are vehicles entering/exiting this site regularly. It's pretty safe after hours to just pull over in the driveway. The cache container only has room to host a log sheet, so please bring your own writing instrument. No other tools required. Please note in your log if maintenance is required! Also, there is no need to go into or disturb the shrubs, plants, etc.
Congrats to Trefoil/Voyager for the FTF!