Following a two-year absence, the residents of St. Regis once again have a place to bring their recyclables.

In 2020, the St. Regis Resort board made the decision to scrap the recycling system that they sponsored for the community, ultimately due to rising financial expenses.

When the program first started it cost around $800 each month to have the bin emptied, after six months or so that cost nearly doubled. One issue regarding the bin was individuals were not breaking down their cardboard, this resulted in lots of wasted space and Republic Services having to come empty the container frequently.

After more than a year of having to bring their recycling to Superior or farther, St. Regis residents continued to express their desire to have the bin reinstated and the Community Council and Resort Board took notice.

Tyler Cheesman, the newly elected President of the St. Regis Community Council stated, “The Resort Board took the initiative to get our recycling bin back and have set up times to pay someone to unlock it and keep an eye on it during dump times to make sure the wrong things aren’t being put in there and to make sure boxes are broke down before they get thrown in.”

The old recycling bin was located by the St. Regis Schools cafeteria and the Regent Realty building. Now the big blue recycling container will be stationed across from the St. Regis Community Center at 230 Lobo Loop. This time around, there will be someone at the site to supervise drop-offs and help answer any questions people may have concerning what’s allowed.

Board chair of the St. Regis Resort Board, George Bailey remarked, “We had a problem before with hauling lots of air, people were not breaking down their boxes well enough.” He added, “The haul to the recycling facility was a large expense, so we decided we needed to have a system in place to have someone monitor the bin site while it was open to the public.”

With the new setup, management, and bin location members of the board are hopeful it will solve the issues that they faced last time with the program, and also be beneficial to local residents. Bailed noted, “The resort board sponsored it before, then it was suspended for a while, but now it’s been reinstated with new parameters and we hope it gets lots of use with folks following these guidelines.”

Drop-off hours for the St. Regis Recycling site will be Wednesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. People should follow the accepted items policy posted on the container and flatten all cardboard items.