More than 17 million empties already processed by SARCAN in the five days since reopening

After a nearly three month long closure, people are sure eager to get their empties back to SARCAN.

So much so, that Communications Manager Sean Homenick says more than 17 million cans, bottles and cartons have already been processed by employees across the province, in just the first five days of operation.

About $2.1 million in cash, cheques and direct deposits have also been handed out – and much more is expected to come.

Homenick says while some rural SARCAN facilities are just starting to see a bit of a slowdown, many urban centres are seeing people line up as early as 5 a.m.

“We’ve had about 40,000 customers visit since we reopened, which is really high…it’s probably going to go down as our busiest week on record,” said Homenick.

He likens the volume at most locations to what would typically be the busiest days of the year- the day after New Year’s Day and the August long weekend — but now that’s every single day so far. He expects it will continue for a least a couple of weeks.

The “drop and go” system has also proven extremely popular because it’s low contact.

“In some locations, 50 per cent of our volume has come from drop and go, whereas this time last year a depot would maybe get two per cent.

“Unfortunately in a couple of our locations it’s been so popular, that we’ve been overwhelmed by the volume and had to shut it down for an hour just to catch up.”

Homenick says they knew there would be a backlog, and that it would be busy, but they didn’t anticipate just how busy it would be. So far, there haven’t been any issues with wait times or lineups.

“The employees have been awesome… we have an awesome feedback loop on our website that helps you salute a depot and a lot of our customers have been taking the time to just message us to say… thanks for everything you do.”