Great news. That place was an eyesore in an otherwise well looked after facility. Fights over the junk? Are you serious?

Too bad that a couple of idiots have to ruin the program for everybody. Guess this means more stuff in the landfill now.

use the feebies section on kiji if you want to give stuff away.

There must be away to keep the swap shop open and supervised. Has the RDFFG looked into any grants to hire a person to look after the shed, taking the responsability off other employees? Yes and donate what you can to the thrift shops, but they are also full to maximum on a regular basis… and they in turn have to take reusable product to the landfill. There are many swap sheds in other communities, HOW DO THEY WORK ? this should be looked into.
What a shame and a waste… and more ending up in the landfill

Thank GOD!!!!

My father in law will now not be able to bring me shit over from that place.

I have never dropped anything off at the shed that actually ever made it into the shed. There are always folks who just sit there waiting for stuff, and it seems to be whoever makes it to my truck fastest gets it, and the others grumble. I can totally see them fighting over the stuff.
That being said, it was nice to have somewhere to take our things to be re-used. It is too bad that some people couldn’t behave.

Damn, and just before christmas too! …;=)

Short sighted decision – with no public consultation. First time it comes before the RD board the decision gets made.

Staff have never liked the swap shed. Have made suggestions several times to staff to try and find programs that would pay half the wages for a student. If a student was in the swap shed, wearing a high vis vest – people would not make the mess they currently do.

The Cariboo Regional District has rebuilt bigger ‘share sheds’ and have a staff person on site for the rural shed in Lac La Hache.

People are going to take the path of least resistance – which means most of what was going into the swap shed and being picked up by other – will now go into the landfill.

I for one am very disappointed with this decision.

I used the swap shed a couple times and found there were people who would hang around and hover over you as you were unloading your vehicle.

And a significant portion of what ended up in the swap shed should have just gone in the garbage.

Good suggestion above about kijiji.

Swap sheds? Build about a thousand of them up and down the coast. A sea of crap headed this way. Lots for everyone. No fighting. Just wait for the next tide. Always something new everybody.

Most of the stuff in the swop shed was garbage, any good stuff ended up in garage sales. All the real good stuff goes in the dumpsters because people are to lazy or to stupid to recycle. 40 years ago I use-to collect garbage, I made my wages or more salvaging things that were thrown out.

Mandatory sorting is what should happen. From compost, metal to wood ……Nothing’s going to change till we drowned in it. Its a world wide problem.

I’m sorry to say that place was disgusting. I took a look in there once and was grossed out. Bugs in clothing. And the smell. I wouldn’t want any student I know to work in that metal cube. The stuff is better off at second hand stores where they at least clean things up.

Ps: Kijiji is a great idea for free stuff!!

The Swap Sheds in many other commmunities I’ve seen were always clean, had serviceable items and were never supervised. Unfortunately Prince George residents can’t seem to respect the opportunity given to them. This swap shed was downright awful, mostly pillaged by people looking to turn around and sell anything of value. It’s an unfortunate decision, but totally understandable. Unfortunately, I don’t see many people making the extra trip to the thrift store to donate their items – the swap shed was handy because it was right next to the landfill.

I used to work at the Foothills Landfill, and I for one am extremely glad to see this shack go. During the busy hours, especially on weekends, the amount of traffic made it nearly impossible to manage the swap shed unless we held a permanent presence in there (which is a waste of time… which translates to a waste of government money). There are rules, signs posted, and frequent patrols towards it but with the sheer volume of traffic it could not be viable to keep it perfectly clean without public doing their part as well.

I couldn’t count on any number of hands how many people I had to ask to leave for loitering, making a mess, cutting cables off of appliances, and smoking while they wait for more to take(neglecting the hundreds of no smoking signs and methane vents)…urinating on the back of the shed… Hypodermic needles in the toy box.. Which, by the way, when we shut down the swap shed to clean a large portion of the public was furious that we closed it down on a day that was not Thursday.

Another benefit: how many of you have tried to get into the landfill on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in mid summer and realized you have to wait in the line-up that runs down Foothills to drop your grass off? From my personal experience there, it seemed like 1/3 of the cars in the line were trying to get to the cluster**** that was the swap shed for the choice metals to salvage. Less waiting, more open space for traffic, I think it is only a benefit.

Also, hartbooks.. “Short sighted decision – with no public consultation. First time it comes before the RD board the decision gets made.” That has been put in front of the district hundreds of times with simple adjustments made (i.e. the permits) to see if it was still viable to keep for the public’s sake. That place is a hazard, and the regular attendees of the swap shed did nothing to warrant keeping it. Good riddance, Swap Shed.

Perhaps we now need to think more creatively how we donate our no longer wanted goods. Perhaps the city….or someone start to compile a list of non profits that need donations of Useable goods. Perhaps a small charge to drop off your goods. I would pay a toonie to drop off my boxes of re-useable goods. I do refuse to donate to value village, it does help aimhi but it’s also it’s a for profit company.

Slow morning eh?

Sieg, I looked in the last 2 years worth of agendas and must have missed it if it was on there to get put before the board.

Permits? Those were rarely required to be filled out, and rightly so – with the big truck traffic that needs to get on & off the scale I can see why.

I wish people had treated the swap shed with more respect, but don’t like to see all the regular attendees painted with the same brush.

In this day of “green” this, LEED that, saving the planet etc, it is inconceivable to me that there is no apparent will within the RDFFG to ensure that recyclables are separated from the stream of garbage entering the landfill. Swap shed or not, the real crime here is that very little effort is put into reducing the total volume of landfill by adhering to a recycling regime. Agreed, it comes down to the enthusiasm and ambition, or lack thereof, of the dumping public to ensure that recyclables and reusables are separated. It does not require a lot of effort, and perhaps only a desire to do the right thing. We make an effort, as do many. Electronics can still be dropped off at the BBK depot, books, knicknacks, small household items, good clean clothing can be donated to charitable organizations as mentioned at the end of the story above. I look into the swap shed most times I have to go to the dump, and have carted off quite a few books over the years (for our own reading, not for resale). As someone else mentioned here; it is too bad that a very few people have spoiled this minimal attempt at recycling for everyone else.
metalman.

Could have had the “green” mayor supervise there to pay for the trip to China.

I, like hartbooks, was never asked to fill out a permit and also usually things I took there were snatched up right away but some of the stuff in there shouldn’t have been. Too bad people have to spoil a good thing.

Oh, is the shed up for grabs now? Just wondering.

Too bad.
Never realized there was a fee to use the swap shed.
I have taken a few things there. One day I picked up 40 feet of large flexible pipe that some contractor had left. Made my day as I was landscaping at the time and it was great for a drain away from the house.

Ok, so more for the landfill.
Thought we are all going “GREEN”.
Maybe City Council and Mrs. GREEN should go to Europe to see how they do recycling instead of going to China!
Have a great weekend

I agree that we need to push recycling in general in this community. My household gets pickup from a private company so it’s easy and coordinated with garbage day. All sorts of thigns that are not accepted at any of the big bins around town are carted off by this company. It’s easy, very cheap, and reduces our garbage significantly. Maybe instead of putting higher garbage rates into garbage pickup, they could contract with a company to have pickup at every home. Give people a discount or lowered cost for using the small garbage container (which is stil plenty big) and really charge high for the massive bins.

Swap sheds make sense in small communities that have no other end sources for unwanted goods. Since PG has places such as ReStore, thrift stores, consignment shops, and an active Kijiji community, there is no reason that taxpayers should be funding the swap shed.

Furthermore, after having a person take things directly from my trunk while visiting the swap shed, I would far rather take my old door knobs to the smiling faces at ReStore and know that the raised funds are going to a good cause rather than someone’s garage sale.

Oh just what we need. Now pawn shops and value village, sally ann can raise their price. Although I have never used the swap shed, I did drop stuff off there. The rubbies that were using the shed o resell stuff at their garage sales were undercutting the pawn shops and sally ann and value village. Value village is greedy and really gouges people for old used junk. Trip to China? It is not a Mayors perk that every Mayor should bilk the folks of Prince George out of their money when we can’t afford snow clearing, staff for swap sheds, and pothole repairs. Now we hear far less people will be shopping downtown, is this a good time to get rid of swap sheds when the pawn shops are downtown? Stupid idea number 53! And to think I voted for Green! She has got to go. Nothing taken to the public for opinion. PG does not get to speak!

Unusable or hazardous materials being dropped off, that’s what is being dropped off on private property now. By closing this site its only going to make the dumping on private property worse. Take a drive behind the way scales on the Hart and see what I mean. I would like to see additional staff hired.

Oh no, please don`t do the free kijiji thing so 1fastm3 father inlaw can`t pick the junk up and bring it over to his/her place….

Sieg has a good idea by xing the shed and laying off a few people standing around up there complaining about having to actually work…