People in Cape Breton's Victoria County who want to reduce, reuse and recycle will soon be getting some help with the second R.

The county plans to open Cape Breton's first "reuse centre" in Baddeck.

"We know there are some items that end up at our landfill that some other folks may have some use for," said Warden Bruce Morrison.

"We are hoping to pull some of those items out of the waste line and perhaps get them to people that can reuse them or rework them for something."

The county does not allow salvaging, or garbage picking, because of liability and insurance issues, but there has been a public demand to find a way to make reusable items available.

"We know there are a couple of other municipalities that are currently doing something similar, and it's worked out quite well for them," Morrison said, "and also, through a couple of public meetings that we've had in different districts, people made it clear to us that there are some items that they think could be salvaged, if we could do it in a fair way."

The new reuse centre is ready to go. (Submitted by Victoria County)

County staff has not yet figured out how the process will work — whether the county will charge a small fee or take bids on items — but it has completed construction on a seven-metre-by-nine-metre storage building at the Baddeck transfer station.

The facility's staff have also started setting aside reusable items. So far, the inventory includes a stove, a microwave oven, a dishwasher, an electrical panel and a Santa Claus decoration, said Jocelyn Bethune, spokesperson for the county's public works department.

"Apparently, we get a lot of kids bicycles in June," she said. "I know some of our staff in particular are really excited about knowing that these perfectly good bicycles are going to find another home."

The reuse centre will operate as a pilot project for now. If it proves successful, the county will keep the Baddeck site open and look at opening a second centre north of Smokey.

The goal is to have the Baddeck centre up and running by May, in time for spring cleaning.