Williams Moving & Storage Ltd. is widely known for trucking furniture from location to location. Now it's also doing its part to move recyclable materials out of landfills.
A new division focused on recycling dubbed Urban Mining has been created by the Williams group, and has already started operating out of its Coquitlam depot at 2401 United Blvd.
Urban Mining collects various types of recyclable materials, including metals, plastics, wood and paper. However, its main operation is based around appliance pick-up, break-down and disposal.
The division - headed by Williams' chief financial officer (CFO) Tom Williams - was spawned when the business began experiencing an increase in customer requests to have unwanted appliances hauled away. The process of doing so was originally against company policy due to the steep cost involved associated with the proper disposal of each unit. But by creating its own processing and recycling division division, Williams can now do the disposal and recycling in house.
"We do a lot of office moving, and we have a lot of by-product of moving," Tom Williams explained in an interview with The Tri-City News. "People have always asked us to dispose of old stuff, but only so much can be given away or sent to the little second-hand stores. Most of the stuff used to go to the landfill, and that really frosts me."
Hauling and dismantling items like old computers is a prime example of the "modern recycling age" of which Urban Mining has entered, stripping them right now to the cables and wiring and keeping all related materials in separate bins.
Other materials, such as those involving styrofoam, polyurethane and clean wood, are being handled by Urban Mining, whose named was derived from the fact the company does not have to mine the wilderness for various metals, it can simply source them from within the city.
The only appliances not qualified for the Urban Mining program are fridges and freezers because, as Tom Williams explained, "fridges and freezers contain [the chemical] freon, and certification is need to dispose of freon."
For more information about Urban Mining, call 604-945-2536.
With 12 locations in B.C. and Alberta, Williams Moving & Storage is a family owned and operated Canadian corporation specializing in providing transportation, logistics, relocation, warehousing and distribution services related to a wide variety of goods, on behalf of individuals, corporations and government agencies. Visit www.williamsmoving.com.
