Reviews of Regional Recycling Nanaimo - Hayes - Bottle Depot (Scrap Yards)

Brandon

I thought I was on a prank show, the staff here are unbelievably rude, I went to put cardboard boxes in the recycling thing and one of the guys told me that it was closed and it needed to be pressed down and one of the staff will come over and open up in a couple minutes and then a guy come over and sais in a snarky tone that "you can open it just fine" made my whole family uncomfortable I would highly suggest going to any other bottle depot besides this one!

Jeffrey Cain

Fast and clean

Em von Euw

Generally speaking, it's a recycling depot. Not the cleanest, and nothing fancy or amazing is expected-- but this place gets the job done. You can recycle practically every material. Staff are usually helpful and polite. But the parking lot could use a repaving... Very rough paved area that makes your cart filled with bottles sound like a terrifying earthquake ???? Plus your bottles get thrown everywhere while you try to roll your cart to the one more recently paved strip. It's actually almost comical? There is a fancy new machine that gives you your cash, so that's fun!

James Christie

They definitely screw you on your bottle returns. If you want a full refund on your empties take them to a liquor store that accepts them.

James Goodman

AMAZING Excellent Friendly Helpful Staff

Colin White

Usually not to bad but closed with no notices on website and nothing on the phone message system.

Leanne Ryder

The cleanest, most organized, easiest, friendly recycling place I have ever experienced and I have lived in many communities

Chase C

Unfriendly and lazy staff. They happily reject random bottles without any of explanation. Painful experience. Will never go back!

Harland Skriver

Excellent

Koleso Newspaper

Very bad service. Like in last century.

Johnny Fandry

Kwik and easy!!!

aappu perisu

Good people and Great service.

erin ovens

The manager is great. She is always smiling and very helpful. I’ve been going here for years.

Andy Fenrick

Busy, waiting line, 5 deep!

Paul Craig

Helpful young staff.

northern redneck

Good service

Erik Wright

The friendly staff keep the bottle depot clean, but this location can regularly become overcrowded at times. That being said, it's still important to do our part in keeping the environment clean so even when it's busy, you can get in and out in 15 minutes.

William Berdusco

Quick effective, and open when they say they are open

Tyrant Chimera

This place is like a Walmart of recycling. It's decent, it's convenient, it's gonna take most of your stuff, but it's not winning any awards. First of all, the area. It's not far from Country Club mall and a bunch of car dealerships off the main drag, meaning, as mentioned, that it's a convenient location. However, I'm starting to see why they tried to shut it down a while back. The parking lot is uneven and full of cracks and potholes, making it user unfriendly. The building layout is adequate, but you're definitely going to be running around the property a bit, outside (be careful of cold and ice in the winter!), if you've brought anything more than beverage recycling. Side note here, separate your alcoholic containers from your other ones, even if they're all aluminum cans. As for the service, most of the people there are friendly enough for a place that obviously sees too many customers. One or two will definitely yell at you, multiple times even, if you put your cardboard box in the wrong pile of cardboard boxes. No I did not know that was a thing, and no, no explanations were forthcoming. I was just yelled at with a, "That doesn't go there!" But most of the rest of them are quiet and friendly enough if you're decent back. It's loud there, and when I went to get my change I thought I was told I'd be getting something like seven dollars back? I got two. Double check your receipts. At least they were sanitizing the change machine this time around thanks to Covid. Last time I went my change was covered in a random sticky substance. Another side note; rinse your cans, bottle, etc before you put them in your recycling can. You will save yourself so much grossness later. Speaking of grossness... There is a station for handwashing with soap and water, and also lots of sanitizer thankfully. Not so thankfully, there is never any actual soap at the station. If you need to dump your recycling all at once in a place while you're in the middle of other errands, then this is a viable location. I'd recommend going elsewhere myself honestly though

Amber Fairchuk

Good service, staff always friendly and courteous.

Steven Smith

Great to be there sort what you bring and then return. Helpful staff.

RG whatup

A good place to recycle your recyclables. The parking is spacious makking it easy to park. Very easy to get to as its near Beban. The staf were great and easy to work with. They also have carts to easily sort through your recyclables. Also has a washing station to clean afterwards. All in all great place to recycle.

Adina Scott

I live in the north end so this location is convenient, however, I will be making the trip to the south end location from now on after the disrespect rude behavior I encountered. One worker would mumble a direction at me and then yell because I could hear him through his mask, when a another worker was asked about this we were told "oh hes just like that. " then without missing a beat she said I can refuse your service because for rude behavior. Well Lady. Shockingly thats the exact same thing I had an issue with, rude behaviour. DO NOT go here. Old victoria road is way better and treats the customers with respect.

Maggie Henigman

Would prefer zero stars. Very frustrated after being given totally different instructions on two separate events from the same person on beverage container returns and two different instructions for plastic bag recycling from two different people working side y side. Does any one there actually know what's going on??

Christine Robertson

The staff are helpful and friendly.

Laura and Brian Brown

Very unorganized and not a good practical place to have a recycling depot. I see why people don't want to recycle. Big thumbs down.

Andre Liem

Good friendly staff and well organized!

Miguel Neves

Friendly staff

Joseph Kroll

Staff is generally pretty moody and can be rude. I'm not exactly expecting smiles every visit, especially considering I'm not paying them, but I've been to recycling depots in the interior and they've generally been more positive and friendly on average. But again I'm not paying them so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.

barry boudreau

Always very nice and friendly

evilzombiegrrrl

I find the people are friendly. Everytime ive had a question they seem happy to answer.

Oura Giakoumakis

Paul and his team were absolutely wonderful to deal with. The KSS grad class of 2022 couldn’t be happier to work with such a fabulous organization. Thank you Paul to you and your team

Jylevi Keith

Quick and easy

Heather Shortill

Very organized.

Rene Desjardins

Fast efficient covid protocols in place

A ynotslohcin

Unfriendly, unorganized, no where to sort, this place is a joke. I would rather throw out my recyclables then ever return here.

Isabel VanGrootheest

Friendly service! Great place, we'll run:)

John Ross

Goop employees

James M

Staff have been great, very patient. Wait wasn't too bad.

Bruce Currell

Had to sort outside in the wind. Many we wasps today.

Original Flow

Coming from Alberta, it was an adjustment having to sort everything before heading to the depot. However now we bring trays home and we sort and stack at home, so when we come, it's a quick 5 minute visit at most. It works well and love that we can bring excess cardboard and other household items to recycle as well.

Yard Plots

Takes styrofoam at the old Victoria road location. Actually pays for bottles. Electronics. A few other items too. It would be nice if this company was more of a one stop recycling center like the Nanaimo recycling exchange used to be. At least both these locations are neat and organized.

Judy Curran

They are great people there. Always very friendly and helpful. Thanks for being open and helping with the economy!

Judy K

Help keep our environment clean and make a few dollars for your help effort! Always Friendly, Hard-working staff. They are very helpful and can answer All of your recycling questions. The main entrance is for returning cans, bottles, and Tetra Pak juice boxes. You can receive the deposit you paid when you purchased the items. The Bottle Depot also.supports a different local charity every month, you can donate your cans and bottles to support them. There are separate areas for different items. They accept plastic, glass, paper, cardboard, small and large appliances, styrofoam,. batteries, electronics and more. The area have signage or you can ask any employee if you are unsure of where to take your recyclables.

Andrew Hutzler

Staff are efficient. Gets you in and out and on with your day.

Sandra Rewega

Everything is running pretty smooth here today

Fraser Coltman

The depot is well organized, and the staff is polite and efficient. We’re blessed to have a place like this for dealing with our recyclable materials.

Brian Cross

Rude, unhelpful. Wouldn't take labeled paint can with plastic bag taped and covering it. Told me to throw it in garage! Are we not trying to keep toxin's out of land fills? I took same can to another depot, they took it no questions asked. When asked to use a cart to transport paint cans to sorting area operator rudely told me "no". I made 10 trips from car to sorting area carrying various cans and jugs of hazardous waste across parking lot.

Craig

They set things up to social distance - although you have to contest with both wind, and pushing your kart along bumpy pavement that can and likely will lead to half your stuff falling over.

el recreo RD

Will be better if they count the bottles for you just like in alberta make it easy for the nacion

Adina Monson

They do not seem to care about the customers. Wasps are bad, I got swarmed and stung 6xs and told the staff, his basic response was stop whining and let me do me job.

Bryce Green

Very poor experience at this bottle depot, absolutely will not return. Staff were argumentative and rude over a lack of understanding on our part over how they wanted things sorted from us. No obvious instructions are posted anywhere inside the facility, their website has very minimal instructions as well. Recycled for many years in Alberta with zero issues. Most facilities in Alberta are full serve, you just bring in recyclables and they count and sort everything, happily. No wonder people here don't recycle nearly as much, having to recount everything two or three times due to lack of instruction is not acceptable for the customer. I will also note, I'm not the only person to have commented on the poor service from your staff. In summary: -Rude and Argumentative staff -Poor signage and instructions -Not user friendly for the customer

Ross MacIntyre

Helpful peeps

Nanaimo 2020

A great place to recycle your recyclables! The staff works hard. And unlike the old NRE, this place is completely paved and no mud anywhere! Great job, guys and girls ????????????????

Joe Izme

Fast and friendly service, finally open weekends!

ETRA Bjornson

This is recycling made easy - staff very helpful and I am amazed at the range of goods they take. Very pleased to see plastic recycling - it's amazing how much we still use in spite of best efforts.

Nanaimo Lifer

I go here quite often and am usually quite satisfied. One time i was in a bit of a rush and had two full bags of cans, told the guy that was working that there was 288 cans in each bag, he didn't believe me and told me I would have to put them in flats. I was with my three year old at the time and really didn't want to do it but I did over the course of an hour. Turned out i had more than 288 in each bag, probably because my son was helping me put them in. I think I was 20 cans over but I would have gladly gave them up rather than filling flats and chasing a 3 year old around.

Patricia Bagley

Nice

Dan Murphy

Fast and efficient.

Brian S

Fast and courteous considering what a difficult job they have to do.

Sheila Mickey

Other than the rain, going fine til some guy shows up, all he did was yell around cussing at who ever was with him!! Geez save it for home! Everyone doesn't need to hear your family problems...friendly staff kept the flow going tho.

David Sun

These guys are simply awesome!

Maynard Skrepnechuk

It is effective place. Staff was acceptable. You simply sort your beverage containers and they cash them in

Barbara Cutler

Everything you need to get you recyclables sorted and helpful friendly staff

Adam Laforest

We had a bottle drive for my rugby team this Saturday. The set up is very simple and easy to use. The staff were helpful. It is great you show up everything is ready you collect and sort and then leave and pick your check in a few days. Very hassle free. Kevin is extremely helpful and positive answers any questions you have no matter how stupid they may be. Thank you very much.

Frank Giesbrecht

They are so helpful

L Vallese

We finally brought all of our recycling today and it was busy but everyone was quick so we were there about 15 minutes. The young man on the drop off for electric, glass, etc was extremely helpful and made my anxiousness go away. Funny how times like these will make us worry more. Thank you.

Thomas E Bishop

I am from Parksville and due to the rudeness and sarcastic attitude I have received on several occasions from the Parksville recycling centre staff, I now travel to Nanaimo to turn in my recycling. They have it together in Nanaimo unlike the staff at Parksville who continue to a treat people with sarcasm and verbal tongue lashings. Recycling is a learning process for everyone, especially when it importantly involves our environment. It is not progressive nor encouraging to opt into a proper recycling program when you are constantly met with disrespectful behaviour. Unprofessional treatment towards those who are trying to recycle efficiently consequently leads to perplexed persons dumping more recycling into their regular garbage or littering it elsewhere, rather than face abusive behaviour at a recycling centre. Thankfully the Regional Recycling Depot provides a cooperative and respectful atmosphere that I very much appreciate. Thanks Nanaimo Recycling Depot.

L J

Well organized and helpful staff. Returning of recyclables went quickly even on a very busy Saturday.

Steve Levington

Fast service, always handy

Vic Wilson

Fast and efficient. Felt bad for the staff as they seemed overworked by the barrage of people coming through the doors.

Jose Imamura

Not the friendliest staff

Kamlesh Cuban

Clean, friendly staff

Trina Ttiglmann

A special thank you to Kevin! You made our bottle drive seem effortless and was always available to answer any questions we had. We were able to return all the bottles and provide our son with a HUGE cheque to put towards his new dirt bike that was destroyed in our RV fire on Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you again for making our event a success!!! Highly recommend Hayes Road bottle depot for any bottle drive events.

Sheila davis

first time there and the experience was terrible. the employees were unhelpful and acted like i was an inconvenience. I was trying to tell them it was my first time and i needed a bit of help with how we were supposed to arrange and organize things, but all i got was attitude.

Stephanie Symon

Very rude . No wonder you need staff. No one wants to work with people who treat their customers so rudely.

Kyle Derksen

If you go to their website it says they offer a "Fast Drop" service where you can simply drop off your recycling in response to Covid. I went there to try and use this service and was told Nanaimo doesn't offer it and I would have to go to parksville or ladysmith in order to drop off my recycling...

Terry Sinden

It's a clean,well run company Staff is great.

Bill Windley

Always friendly. With all the changes on what is and what is not accepted they do a great job of helping to sort. I have seen people put non refundable items in with refundable items and they sort it out at the checkout. A learning curve that they have to explain to people., who like me are not up with the latest things. THANKS I WILL BE BACK..

Don Varey

Staff are quick efficient & friendly.

harold strempler

☺

Ian Fairbairn

Experience was quick and efficient with the small amount that was brought in for return.

Lise Verboom

I live in Parksville but go to bottle depot here the people here are so much friendlier and one girl I think her name is Alana she is great to deal with. I will go back there as much as possible

Paul Wright

Rude staff doing you a favour by actually doing their job. Badly.

Steven Mcsquiggles

Well it was quite the ordeal let me tell you... Firstly as soon as I pulled up, I was immediately accosted by a group of feral cats. I realized that my only hope was to channel my inner spirit dog and defend myself! The fight was hard, but after I subdued the lord of the cats the others dispersed quickly. After the battle I realized that I no longer had the energy to deal with my recycling and just gave my cans to a vagabond who witnessed the whole thing. Overall it was a five star experience and there aren't many of those free these days... I shall return!

Sid Whittaker

Not helpful that they advertise a Drop-off service but when you go there they don't offer the service!

Melanie Wells

Route from Highway 19 via Mostar Rd very indirect. Better to travel on Mostar to Island Hwy and turn right. Great facility.

Brande Terris

Great place for a team fundraiser. Have been there a few times. Staff is great and easy to work with. We will definitely be back and use them again.

MacKenzie Cooper

There folks in the bottle side are always very helpful. Used the metal return side for the first time today and was given nothing but short answers...

Jamie Johnston

Very friendly and helpful service!

Cindy Shillington

Always busy, always helpful busy staff

Laura Hermann

The people here are way friendlier than the recycling depot in Parksville, therefore I drive all the way down just for my recycling etc.

Blake Leclair

This place has terrible service. First time here and there is no clear instructions on what they want. I was treated as an inconvenience because I had questions. I was treated with ZERO respect from the very start as if I was specifically trying to make the staff angry. They dont sort, count, or really do anything here. Sad compared to the service on the mainland.

Cindi Thompson

Staff so helpful, they make itso easy!

Deep Bay Fire/Rescue Society

The Deep Bay Fire/Rescue Society would like to acknowledge the professional and friendly service we received from Paul to make our recent bottle drive a huge success! Thanks so very much!

K Bollinger

Thank you so much to Paul for setting up our account and organizing our bottle fundraisers. The driver that comes out is so organized and efficient. He got us all set up and organized and made the fundraisers go so smooth. We really appreciate all your help.

Marigold G.

Since this is the nearest bottle depo on the north end we tend to go here for accessibility. The staff is nice or neutral BUT they are not counting the bottles even when you already set it up in a box for them. Happened trice already so we won't be going back anymore.

Lauren Brady

The woman greeting at the front and directing people where to go was very friendly and helpful - saw her help an old lady that brought in some batteries and looked like it would've taken her half an hour to walk to the side of the building - the staff member let the senior know where to go in the future but said she'd take care of them for her today. Teller/bottle counter also friendly.

Sandy Derkach

Our Prom Committee had a very successful bottle drive yesterday. Paul was great in communicating with me prior to our bottle drive and Kevin was SUPER helpful and friendly during the hours that we were there! They even supplied us with hot dogs and water! We will be back in January!!

Alexa Janson

Love this place. After a horrible experience at the parksville bottle depot, this was an amazing surprise. Everyone is friendly and very helpful, and they encourage us to bring as many bottle as possible, as opposed to parksville where we were allowed 9 trays max per day. This is our new go-to place.

Erin M

Our group held an offsite bottle drive fundraising event this weekend and it was a great success! Over $1200 in four hours. The driver and the manager were both helpful and friendly. Communication was prompt and reliable. Look forward to doing this again!

Kamie Bilton

Have done a number of bottle drives with this bottle depot over the years. Both on location and at the depot. Have always had great experiences. for on location they come and give everything needed then come back and take away everything! would recommend and will definitely be doing more in the coming years im sure. Paul has always been great to deal with and easy to organize with. thanks again!

Jim Duddridge

First time in there. Well organized with friendly and helpful staff. I'll be back.

Lyle dyck

It was ok not the best ????

Fiona Robertson

Our hockey team recently had a bottle drive this past Saturday and we would like to extend our thanks to Kevin. He was incredibly helpful, energetic and patient with us (the various bottle categories seemed to stump us!). Kevin helped make the experience enjoyable, even when the weather was not. Thanks Kevin.

J Mon

Also good to recycle, and it's a good chore for the kids to help with to earn some pocket change. Always wise to keep an eye on sugar and alcohol consumption, Always best in moderation ;) Glass Metal Plastic Appliances / electronics Styrofoam Batteries Covid protocols were adequately enforced. They were looking for more employees last time I was there. The parking lot is reached a point where it needs to be repaved and repainted.

Jess Carpenter

I love going to this bottle depot because I when to this one with my big sister when I was 5 and I have bin going to this one for about 11 years know and I am soo happy because everyone is very nice and so helpful