Our Mission
To provide our stakeholders with the optimal environment and economic benefits associated with responsible solid waste management by ensuring the efficient operation of the Lunenburg Regional Community Recycling Centre, maximum diversion from landfill, courteous service to the public and by providing incentives and educative services to encourage the community to reduce waste, reuse whenever possible, and recycle and compost correctly.
The Lunenburg Regional Community Recycling Centre is jointly owned by the District of Lunenburg and the Towns of Mahone Bay and Bridgewater, serving a population of about 34,000 residents. We are located on Nova Scotia’s scenic South Shore, in Whynott's Settlement, near Bridgewater.
In 2005, the Community Recycling Centre celebrated its 10th anniversary. It’s hard to believe how far we have come since 1977 when we were burning trash in a teepee style incinerator.
In 1991, the District and the Towns of Mahone Bay, Bridgewater, and Lunenburg came together and established a Waste Management Committee. At that time, the ‘dump’ consisted of a silo incinerator for bagged waste, a pit burner for waste wood and dry landfill for non-combustibles and ash from the incinerators.
Recycling was becoming top-of-mind. One thousand households representing each of the four municipal units took part in a pilot project in 1992, with each household receiving an aerated cart and kitchen container for collection of organics, a supply of blue bags and a recycling brochure. The result: nearly one-third of the waste was diverted. The seed had been planted!
In 2013 a Municipal Joint Services Board was created through a cost sharing arrangement to better serve residents of the District of Lunenburg and the Towns of Bridgewater and Mahone Bay. Each partnering unit appointed members to sit on the Board of Directors who report to the municipal councils regularly on the progress and to identify furture shared services opportunties. The Lunenburg Regional Community Recycling Centre is the first municipal shared service to be administred by the Board.
Today, We manage around 8 different waste streams, ensuring as much is recycled as possible. We accept organics, recyclables, paper and garbage. We also accept household hazardous waste, construction and demolition waste, including woodchips, drywall, asphalt shingles and metal.
In addition to being a world-class facility, we have been busy over the last few years providing environmental education programs, resource materials and face-to-face community outreach programs—all to encourage our customers to reduce their waste even further and save money.
