Abitibi Drops Out of Wichita

Abitibi Recycling’s Paper Retriever program has decided to withdraw from its recent move into Wichita, Kansas. The move has created a void with the collection program in the city.

Abitibi Consolidated, which recently announced plans to merge with Bowater Inc., sent a letter to various centers where it had its Paper Retriever containers, telling them that within the next several months the company would be taking its containers back. The city has roughly 200 containers scattered through the city.

The program only began around six months ago, and a source with the city of Wichita said that even in the beginning the containers were slow to arrive at the various locations. According to public reports the company looked at the amount of paper collected through the program and felt it could not justify the cost to run the program.

The paper collected through the program in Wichita was sent to Weyerhaeuser Recycling’s Wichita facility. A representative from the city said that Wichita is hoping that Weyerhaeuser will step in and place some additional containers in the city to make up for the drop off in containers when Abitibi removes their collection containers.

The city of Wichita presently has a subscription-based curbside collection program. Waste Connections also offers some collection containers at a number of large retail stores in the city.