Jasper Municipality loses more than $100,000 a year on its recycling efforts, but for  Ryan Hefflick, there’s good money in garbage.

“I wouldn’t be in it otherwise,” says Hefflick, who owns the Jasper Recycle Depot.

Not only does the Recycle Depot turn a profit, but containers that Jasper residents drop in a bin marked for charity generated $3,800 last year. 

The depot handles about four million beverage containers a year at prices set annually by the Alberta government.

Hefflick said volume is growing by about 10 per cent a year. Plastic, metal and glass containers are reborn as anything from new containers to car parts and insulation.

The depot has just started accepting discarded cell phones, and spent cartridges for ink jet and laser jet printers, he said.