Businesses call for more blue bins near food truck alley

When people head down Broadway in Winnipeg there are plenty of choices for restaurants, coffee and food trucks, but local business owners say there's not enough places to discard their recyclables.

The owner of Oh Doughnuts, Amanda Kinden, said she doesn't understand why it's so difficult to get some recycling bins around her restaurant.

"It just seems like something so simple. In school 20 years ago we were talking about recycling," she said. "I cannot understand why it's not a thing that's happening more commonly."

Kinden said she goes out onto the road and sees aluminum cans and other recyclable material filling the garbage cans. She provides biodegradable and recyclable containers at her restaurant, and they even end up in the bin.

"You have to make it as easy for people as possible to make the right choice. You walk two blocks on Broadway here, almost anywhere else in the downtown, there are very little recycling opportunities," she said.

"There are plenty of garbage cans and people are going to take that first opportunity to get rid of something they don't want to carry."

Kinden tweeted a photo at the City of Winnipeg Twitter account on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Kinden said she received a response that stated there just wasn't enough money in this budget to put recycling bins on the street.

"I know that the city is pressed and there's lots of people asking for money from different interests and I think that maybe we can look at reallocating some recycle bins," she said. "We don't need to reinvent the wheel it already exists."

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Fools and Horses co-owner, James Magnus-Johnston, said it is frustrating to see a lack of recycling. About 85 per cent of his business's waste stream is compost.

"That's certainly been a bit of a frustration especially for our business, which has an ethos of attempting to reduce waste," he said.

He said, if anything, there should be some public education letting people know their waste can be dealt with in better ways.

In an email to CBC, the city said they have a contract with a company that includes 10 bins for litter and recycling along Broadway. The statement also said if an organization wanted to put forward a proposal for the installation, pickup and maintenance of additional recycling bins in the area, the city would be open to looking at it.