City of Powell River councillors have been provided an update on solid waste collection and potential future directions for the program.
At the November 3 committee of the whole meeting, Rod Fraser, manager of operational services, outlined the prospect of automated solid waste and recycling programs, as well as the collection of organics and the future of garbage tags.
“I wanted to talk today about automated collection and how that works,” said Fraser. “Our intention is to give you the best information we can moving forward.”
Garbage pickup is currently weekly and recycling right now is done every second week at city households. There could be a change to weekly pickup in the future, said Fraser. The next stage of solid waste processing would be adding in and expanding organics collection when capacity becomes available, he added.
“The key with our organics piece is on average, 40 per cent of what we send to the Washington State landfill is organics that could be removed from that waste stream to lessen our impact on the environment, and to take those organics and recycle them locally,” said Fraser.
He said with weekly garbage pickup, the city processes garbage from about 5,600 residences each week. The waste is picked up manually by garbage truck operators, with $2 stickers affixed to each garbage bag. Recycling pickup is also manual.
In terms of the current organics program, there is a weekly pilot project for organics that services about 400 households in the city.
Fraser said the city currently has two automated trucks in operation that have mechanical arms to pick up bins designed for automated use, but at this time are not being used in automated mode, except for the organics pilot project pickup.
In terms of organics, qathet Regional District is currently putting together a request for proposals to develop a local composting facility, according to Fraser. He said if a proponent is selected early next year, they could be ready to accept material in early 2022. Currently, all organics collected in the pilot project are transported to Sechelt for processing.
In terms of gathering input from residents about solid waste collection, Fraser said a city-run survey drew 1,256 responses.
One question in the survey was whether the respondents wanted to see curbside organics collection for all residents. Fraser said 95 per cent of residents want to see that service offered by the city. More than 97 per cent stated they would like to see organics processed in a local facility.
When respondents were asked about removing the $2 garbage tags from the curbside collection, around 84 per cent said they want to see tags removed.
Most people also want weekly curbside collection of garbage, said Fraser.
In the next phase of solid waste management, Fraser said the suggestion would be to move to automated garbage collection. The tags could also be removed.
“These are just options to consider,” said Fraser.
In the third phase, the key would be organics, according to Fraser.
“We’d like to be able to design the program with that in mind to plug that in when it happens, when there is something available to us,” said Fraser. “At that time, we are proposing a third automated truck be introduced.”
Fraser outlined that revenue would be lost if garbage tags were eliminated. In a report to council, Fraser stated that in 2019, revenue collected through tags was $180,714. He said the increase to the taxpayer levy to replace that revenue would be about $32 annually, which would be assessed on top of the $79 that is the current levy.
“It really equates to 16 bags of garbage per household,” said Fraser.
He said the city has taken a look at what people are putting at curbside for waste pickup. Around 80 per cent of residents have two bags or fewer each week.
Regarding automated systems, neighbouring communities use automated garbage carts ranging between 80 and 120 litres in size, with options to upsize the carts. Fraser said in the move to automation, Powell River would be in the 120-litre size of cart. Anything smaller doesn’t work quite as well, he said.
In terms of householders adapting to future changes, community engagement is an important component, according to Fraser.
He said the prospective solid waste program proposals would be coming before the finance committee this month for further review and could go before city council in December for determinations on how to move forward with the program. If council approves, a request for quotes could go out early in the new year for carts and they could be in place by August 2021, with the program being launched in September 2021.
Mayor Dave Formosa asked about procurement of a third automated truck. Fraser said it would be required if Powell River was to expand its organics program to all households on a weekly basis.
Formosa recommended the city should determine if the Sechelt company could take all of Powell River’s organics and expand the program if so, rather than transporting organics in the garbage stream all the way down to Washington State.
Councillor Jim Palm said with regard to the presentation, he was hoping there would be more cost factors for the public, because there will be questions about how much it is going to cost and how much it will add to taxes.
“I know all communities are going down this road,” said Palm. “I know it’s inevitable, but in terms of where we are with our city finances, I’m hoping we try to stage this in for our taxpayers so they are not hit with a big bill all at once. You’re going to hear about the cost when you go to the public.”
Committee of the whole chair and councillor George Doubt said it was great to see this coming. He said if the city is able to expand the composting program to everyone in the city, it will be an improvement.
He said he likes the idea of getting rid of the garbage bags and just paying for the pickup. He said that not having garbage bags is going to clean up the environment and prevent people from dumping their garbage at the side of the road to avoid paying for a tag.
“I’m excited to see it going ahead,” said Doubt.
