With a centralized recycling spot for Whitefish in place, the satellite recycling sites in town are expected close early next month.

The new site, at the city’s snow lot near the corner of Columbia Avenue and Railway Street, opened in mid-December.

“People are using it,” Public Works Director Craig Workman said. “I’m taking my recycling there and it seems like a great location.”

The new site contains bins for plastics, aluminum cans, tin cans, paper, paperboard and cardboard. The site does not have a spot for glass.

Workman said he’s unsure how often North Valley Refuse is emptying the containers, but so far there seems to be plenty of capacity at the new site. There’s also enough space for parking and turning a vehicle around, something that wasn’t always the case at the satellite sites.

The three satellite sites are located at the parking lot south of the Craggy Range, on Kalispell Avenue behind National Parks Realty and at the City Beach boat trailer parking lot. Those sites will close and be removed after Feb. 1.

It’s a move the city and its solid waste contractor North Valley Refuse hope will create a more streamlined system with enough capacity to handle the influx of materials that get left at the city’s recycling sites on the weekends. The sites have been known to overflow on weekends and a fourth site was removed from Alpine Village Market amid complaints of illegal dumping.

The cost to the city to develop the site last fall was estimated at $5,000. Final improvements with paving, permanent fencing and landscaping are set to take place at the site in May.