SkipTheDepot encouraging bottle donations for wildfire relief

An Alberta bottle collection agency is collecting donations to help assist in the ongoing wildfire relief efforts in our province.

SkipTheDepot, which has a facility here in Lethbridge, is partnering with The Canadian Red Cross, and the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society to raise money to help fight the fires.

James Trask, the CEO of SkipTheDepot explained what the money will go towards and how Albertans can help out.

“We’re encouraging Albertans to donate their bottles and cans to the Red Cross and to Alberta Animal Rescue. And they can do that by downloading the SkipTheDepot app from the Google Play or Apple app store. They can use the promo code 2023WILDFIRE and then all of their donations, all of their deposits from their bottles and cans will go directly to either the Red Cross or Alberta Animal Rescue and they’ll receive a 100 per cent tax receipt back for their donations. So we will come to your house, we’ll pick up your bottles and cans, take them back to the depot for you, and in return you will get a tax receipt for the full value of those containers. And it really helps out these organizations in this time.”

According to Trask, SkipTheDepot customers have donated over $1.75 million to more than 1,700 Alberta charities, nonprofits and schools.

Our province remains under a provincial state of emergency with over 90 wildfires burning in both central and northern Alberta. Twenty-seven of them are out of control. There are also 22 states of local emergency and five band council resolutions. 

Around 12,000 evacuees were still out of their homes in various communities.