The Municipality of North Norfolk's recycling program is pretty much paying for itself. That's the feeling of Mayor Neil Christoffersen, after being notified they'd be receiving $37,000 from Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba, based on their performance last year. Christoffersen says that funding will be filtered directly back into the program, by providing funding to the contractors handling the material.

"It's kind of a flow-through dollar amount, because that money goes to the people we've contracted to do the recycling, Sprucedale Industries in Austin. The municipality picks up the recycling on an off day from the garbage and deposits it over at the building. Then, they do all the recycling, packing and shipping."

He notes their recycling program managed to divert about 175,0000 kilograms of waste from the landfill in 2014, representing about 50 kilograms per resident. While Christoffersen's pleased with the numbers, he feels they could be even more effective.

"We're still not finished yet and we're still promoting the recycling program. We still have a ways to go yet. The average for Manitoba is 75 kilograms per person in 2014 for recycling, and ours is at 50 kilograms, but we have to keep in mind that the 75 kilograms per person is taking into account municipal settings where recycling is more apt to occurred than in the rural setting."

He notes the recycling efforts also help to reduce the costs incurred by the municipality, as the province has a levy in place for $10 per tonne of waste in the landfill.