The town of Fort Frances is still uncertain when curbside pickup of recycling materials in Fort Frances will resume.

The service stopped last month when a fire destroyed the town’s recycling facility.

In a lengthy Facebook post, the town intended to seek tenders for reconstruction this week.

It states curbside collection will resume once a new depot is built.

Interim Operations and Facilities Manager Craig Miller says an assessment of the former depot’s remains found them okay to reuse.

“The engineers that we hired completed their assessment of the slab and the footings that remained from the fire, and they were deemed safe for reuse. So we have had a design completed, and we are just working through the final steps to issue a request for tender for the construction of a new depot,” says Miller.

Miller notes residents can drop off their recyclbles at the depot’s compactor.

However, if it is full, the site will be temporarily closed until the bin can be swapped out.

The town also offers an explanation in its post as to why curbside collection cannot resume.

“The GFL trucks are not able to dump recyclables directly into the commercial compactor, hence the need for the recycle depot. If the recyclables collected by GFL were simply dumped on the remaining foundation from the burnt building, the materials would blow all over, and if rained on, would make the paper-based recyclables very difficult to handle”

The town adds none of the recyclables collected in the compactors are being sent to the landfill.