City will try to recoup its multi-million dollar investment in Greys Paper Recycling
Between 2009 and 2014, the city sunk $9.4 million into Greys Paper Recycling Facility
A $9.4-million investment by the City of Edmonton in a paper recycling company may no longer be worth the paper it was printed on.
Between 2009-2014, the city sank $9.4 million into Greys Paper Recycling Facility, an investment that included land, equipment and the building at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre.
Greys declared bankruptcy earlier this year.
The city hoped to get another tenant to move into the building and take over operations, but there were no takers.
Now city council will be asked to approve the sale of some of the equipment still at the facility.
Under terms of the bankruptcy, all proceeds of that sale would go to the Canada Revenue Agency, minus the city's sales costs.
The sale would not include the majority of the larger pieces of paper recycling equipment, which the city secured when the loans were made, according to Coun. Mike Nickel.
Council will decide Monday if the city will keep that equipment or try to sell it.
What the city might get for it is anybody's guess.
"The decisions all range from liquidating and getting what we can for what's sitting on the floor right now to, I don't know what else, what somebody else might suggest," Nickel said.
"You have to take your time in these bankruptcies, to do the proper clean up, because there are strict rules and regulations around them.
"And so from a business point of view, we're just going to have to walk through this step by step."
One suggestion for the space is for the city to create an environmentally sustainable waste management operation.