Municipalities across Alberta and the country are starting to take notice of the Foothills Salvage and Recycling Society and how they deal with trash.

Site manager of the salvage centre Candice Dupre says their mandate is rather simple, but the effects are widespread.

"We're a non-profit organization and our mandate is keeping stuff out of the landfill. We don't charge that much for what we do sell at the salvage centre. Everything that's sold at the centre is sold at garage sale prices."

She says they diverted around 800,000 metric tonnes of waste from the landfill in 2015 and donated over $150,000 to 25 charities in the Foothills as a result.

The salvage centre takes in items still in working condition and in good shape from barbecues, lawn furniture, clothing and retro items, as well as antiques.

She says it's been such a success here they're starting to spread the word.

"Our objective is to set this up over every community, to set up a salvage centre in each landfill."

She says they pick and choose what they can sell at their centre and what actually makes it into their landfill and adds you can find a lot of interesting things at the centre, like the dentist chair from 1914 they just received.

"It depends what's on the load. If it's a load of garbage we don't take it here and we obviously send it right over to the landfill. If they do have useful items on their truck then we will pick and choose what we take off of it. The receivers that work here really know what sells and what doesn't."

She says many other municipalities throughout the province and the country are looking to the Foothills Salvage and Recycling Centre for direction so they can do same thing.

For more information click here: Foothills Salvage & Recycling Centre

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