A local businessman who collected about 100 pounds of recyclables three days after opening up his recycling depot in St. Boniface, says it's a respectable start for a new community service.

Bohna hatched the scheme after reading of a similar initiative in St. Vital, where a depot is manned by market gardeners who bring their produce to sell at a site on St. Mary's Road. The gardeners get to sell what they grow in an area of high traffic -- in return for donating their time to sort out the recyclables.

Bohna decided he would have the markets pick up the recyclables instead of having to deliver them. In addition, he says he will donate all of the money he earns from the recyclables to charity.

If the community responds, the businessman could generate a little extra traffic into his new business -- Happy Harry's Used Building Materials -- while sending a few dollars to a list of charities he's compiled.

Bohna's charities include Winnipeg Harvest; Crimestoppers; the Manitoba Lung Association; the Canadian Cancer Society; the Kidney Foundation of Canada; the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada, Manitoba branch; the Salvation Army; Lake Nutamik Bible Camp and the Save Our Seine group.

Dollars from the community's recyclables will go into a trust fund, he says, which he plans to have monitored by at least two volunteers. "I don't want to touch the money."

Plastic bottles, glass, aluminum, plastic soft drink and liquor bottles, juice and water bottles, metal scrap, and newsprint can be brought to the site.

He says he will also accept used building materials which he can sell in his business. Money earned would also go to the charities.

Copyright 2006 Happy Harry's Used Building Materials. All rights reserved