People lined up outside SARCAN depot in the south of the city with their bags waiting to be let in after the facility reopened last month. (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

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Business has not slowed down at either of SARCAN’s two Prince Albert facilities.

Bill Powalinsky, CEO with P.A. and District Community Service Centre, which operates both facilities through Pine Industries, one of their program arms, said they are still quite busy.

“We’re still processing up to 82,000 containers a day at the depots,” he said.

Both SARCAN depots in the city opened back up in the middle of June after being closed due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Powalinsky explained the daily numbers can vary from 79,500 to over 81,000. He added at their peak they were processing about 90,000 containers per day, so there has been a bit of drop off.

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Since opening back up Powalinsky said they have seen a lot of interest from people in drop and go service, which allows people to drop off their containers and get paid later.

“Drop and go has gone through the roof, people are really responding to it,” he said.

Powalinsky advises people who make use of the drop and go service to be careful when filling out the digital form as they have the option to be paid by cheque or by Paypal and some people have accidently selected the wrong option.

The heavy traffic has led to SARCAN having to hire more employees to deal with the increased demand. Powalinsky said they are still looking to fill some positions.

“We need traffic controllers, we need greeters, we need people to do sanitization, so its really been an interesting experience from a human resources perspective,” he said.

In terms of when things might slow down, Powalinsky said they are expecting to be busy for possibly the next six months in order to catch up after being closed for three months. He said employees have been working overtime and they have pushed opening the doors back an hour in order to process drop and go bags.

“I couldn’t ask for a better crew,” he said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn