SaskAbilities will be sticking around to operate the Swift Current Residential Recycle Depot for at least a while longer.

The announcement was made Monday night at City council that SaskAbilities would continue to operate the depot for at least another year with the option to renew for another two years.

The contract fee is $184,269 a year plus GST; down just under $400 from last year's renewal.

Mitch Minken, general manager of infrastructure and operations with the City of Swift Current, said that it was an obvious decision to renew the contract.

"When we can, and it makes sense, we like to use contracted services," he said. "It avoids having our own staff performing the service for us, and it provides us with an opportunity to support a very good program in Sask Abilities, so that's an added benefit as well."

Minken adds that with the changes in the recycling landscape if the City was ever in a position where they needed to make a change, the contract gives them the flexibility do to so.

SaskAbilities has been operating the depot since 2008 and greets about 700 to 800 customers per week.

Minken said that part of the reason why the City had no issue extending the contract was due to the success of the depot under SaskAbilities.

"We are really proud of a couple of things," he said. "40,000 vehicles visit the depot, that's about 133 visits a day. We are diverting about 750 tonnes, and when you talk about paper, cardboard, and plastics. That's a lot of volumes, so it's a lot of airspaces that is saved in the landfall. The number that sort of stuck out for me was the 27 and a half kilograms or 60 pounds of recycling that are recycled per citizen here. We're pretty proud of that number."

Minken added that with SaskAbilities at the helm they've had no issues marketing their product.

"Our product is so clean because it's all separated at source and the SaskAbilities folks are there to guide our citizens as they're dropping stuff off to make sure we keep those contamination levels very low," he said. "We're not experiencing some of the programs that other jurisdictions are."

Also at City council, the staff of the recycling depot was recognized for being Safe Places certified, something that Minken said they were happy to do.

"SaskAbilities has been part of the Safe Places program right from the beginning," he said. "We took this opportunity when we renewed the contract to bring them in again and recognize them for their people becoming Safe Places certified and knowing that when you go and drop off your recycling your dealing with people that are all safe places certified."