Kettle Valley Waste is a Boundary-based family owned business that’s been collecting garbage since 1982 when Ron Liddle used the weekend enterprise as a way for his daughters to earn pocket money. The original company fleet was a Dodge Dart towing a small utility trailer. Today’s equipment complies with the most modern standards for emissions and fuel efficiency as required under the Regional District Curbside Recycling Collection Contract that the company has held for the past six years throughout the Boundary.
It’s still a family business though. For example, when Kettle Valley Waste recently bought R.A.P.I.D. Services from Joanne Relkov, information packages were delivered door-to-door in the West Boundary and it was Ron’s granddaughters who delivered a lot of those packages.
Since the beginning of April, Kettle Valley Waste has been providing household and commercial garbage collection services on two routes in the West Boundary:
On Wednesdays the route extends from Eholt Road, Boundary Creek and Wallace Creek Roads, Anaconda, Hwy 3 from Anaconda to Midway, and all of Midway to Murray Road on the west side of Midway.
The Thursday route begins at Murray Road on the west side of Midway and extends to Bridesville and Sidley Mountain Road in the west, all the way up Hwy 3 and Rhone Road to Carmi in the north, and up to 1.5 km on Fiva Creek Road in the Christian Valley.
Other side roads that presently receive recycling collection are also covered. “If there are clusters of housing just two kilometres or so farther than we presently go we would be very happy to expand our route a little bit here and there to accommodate them. We hope that people will phone (toll free 1-877-447-9265) to let us know that they want service,” said Liddle.
“Under subscription garbage collection you only use a tag when you put out a bag; there is no monthly charge. The householder has complete control over how he/she wants to use the system. The more that you recycle, the fewer bags of garbage you will need to tag and have collected.
“We have been in conversation with Joanne at R.A.P.I.D. Services for more than a couple of years now about taking over her business if she ever wanted to stop collecting garbage. Since we are over in the West Boundary area anyway collecting recycling, it is a sensible thing for us to collect garbage at the same time. It’s good for the planet; it’s environmentally sensible to be able to collect two streams of waste at the same time rather than have a truck go around the same route twice.
“On April 1 Joanne sold her customer list to Kettle Valley Waste and our sincere wish is to be able to keep on giving people the kind of service that they were used to with her.
“We consider ourselves to be a local business. We’ve been in the Boundary for all these years, we’re family run, our vehicles are serviced in the Boundary, we advertise in the local paper, our drivers live here, and we’ve been faithful Credit Union members since we arrived in 1978.
“Our drivers are friendly and accommodating of peoples’ special needs. Sometimes people can’t bring their garbage out to the road. Those kinds of things happen and our drivers find a way to take care of it.
“We are happy to do other kinds of work besides garbage and recycling collection,” explained Liddle. “If people are interested in doing yard cleanups, roofing jobs, or renovations it can be useful to have one of our roll-off bins dropped at the address.”
Commercial waste collection can be tailored to customer requirements too; for instance, if they need a specific bin size or collection schedule.
“We like what we are doing and we want people to be happy with our service. I know that’s the way Joanne did business. She was a contributor to the community and I think she took a real interest in people along with picking up their garbage and I hope that people find that we are operating in a similar way.”
Liddle says he will drive the West Boundary routes for the next few weeks so that he can meet folks and get a better idea of what the needs are so that he can adjust the service accordingly.
Kettle Valley Waste comes with an endorsement from Joanne. “The reason why I am supportive of him is because he runs a reliable service, he’s been doing it in the area for years and I felt that he would serve our community well.”
Tags are available at The Spot in Midway or phone toll free 1-877-447-9265 and the driver can drop off tags to you at your home. More information is available online at www.kettlevalleywaste.com