SARCAN depots across Saskatchewan have been so busy since reopening in June — hours-long lineups are still happening in Moose Jaw — that the organization collected a record amount of containers in July.
Saskatchewan residents turned in more than 61 million containers last month, which is an astonishing amount since that is a record haul for one month, spokesman Sean Homenick said. Summer is always the organization’s busiest time, as it usually collects about 50 million containers during that time.
“To do 10 million more than that is staggering and (is) straight up a testament of all the hard work of our employees,” he remarked. “They’ve just been doing an amazing job, as we shut down and then as we prepared to reopen, and then have now reopened to the public.”
Homenick was unable to say how much money SARCAN paid out in July. However, after reopening in June, the organization was averaging $1.8 million a week, while it paid more than $8 million from June 8 to July 15.
SARCAN believes the sale of beverage containers increased dramatically during the past five months, said Homenick. Normally people consume beverages in restaurants or bars, places that produce few containers. However, there has been a shift toward single-serve containers and more consumption of beverages at home.
“That’s been something we’ve kind of noticed that’s of interest to us and probably another reason why we’re slightly busy,” he continued.
The Moose Jaw depot has been steady since reopening June 15, with some customers having to wait up to 1.5 hours in line outside, said manager Jennifer Robb. This is not surprising, considering the depot was closed for nearly three months and summer is the busiest time.
Robb reported that from June 8 to Aug. 19, the depot had collected 3,628,802 containers.
Besides waiting in line, customers have also heavily used SARCAN’s Drop ‘n’ Go program, which has been around for three years, said Homenick. The system allows people to skip the line by printing out tags that they can attach to their bags and then drop off. The organization then pays people electronically or by cheque.
The use of Drop ‘n’ Go has been at the forefront of SARCAN’s reopening, he continued. It has the least amount of contact between employees and customers, while it’s also one of the quickest ways to use the organization’s services.
“We didn’t know how many people would want to start using Drop ‘n’ Go, but it has been staggering,” Homenick added.
Before everything shut down, customers in Moose Jaw used the Drop ‘n’ Go program two per cent of the time. After reopening, that number jumped to nearly 40 per cent. There were times when SARCAN Moose Jaw had to close the bin for a day since bags piled up faster than employees could count the containers.
“That’s a really cool thing. We’ve got a lot of positive feedback from customers about that. That’s great,” Homenick said. “It’s been crazy how many people have been using it there, which is a really good thing.”
The Moose Jaw depot has hired an extra seven to 10 employees to keep up with the demand. Normally a depot the size of Moose Jaw would add a couple of students over the summer to help. Meanwhile, other locations have added shifts for staff, while some employees have worked evenings and Sundays to get through the backlog.
SARCAN staff have been impressed with how patient most customers have been, especially in Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw, where lineups have been two hours long, Homenick added. Most customers have also been receptive to following the organization’s safety guidelines, particularly after the safety guidelines are explained to them.
