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City of Port Alberni gets serious about kitchen waste

City says collection service for kitchen, yard waste could be in place next year
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The city of Port Alberni could have a kitchen and yard waste collection service in place by next year.

City CAO Tim Pley brought forward a report during a July 10 meeting of council with four options for council regarding kitchen and yard waste collection. He recommended one option: to provide a kitchen and yard waste collection service utilizing city resources, within the existing structure of solid waste collection services.

The city has a collective agreement with CUPE, which would preclude the city from contracting out work that would negatively impact city CUPE members, or decrease the amount of work for CUPE members. By providing the service in-house, this would not be in conflict with the city’s collective agreement obligations.

He emphasized the difference between “collection” and “processing.” With the current solid waste management system, the city collects solid waste, and the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District processes this waste by landfilling it.

The timing for this is ideal, said Pley, because of of a number of reasons. Tipping fees have increased, the city’s two garbage trucks are reaching the end of their service life and landfills are pushing for separation of organics.

“Approximately five percent of all greenhouse gases in the province come from landfills,” he said. “If [the regional district] doesn’t move to separate organics from their landfill, they may have to put in a methane gas capture system that would be very expensive, and that we would help pay for because we are the landfill’s biggest client in terms of tipping fees.”

If the service is provided in-house, the city would be able to provide that service with relatively little increase in staffing or cost, by decreasing the garbage pickup to bi-weekly and by purchasing trucks with split bodies that could pick up two products at the same time.

Pley added that the biggest cost for the city would be the cost of the cans. The cost of a larger can, to cover both kitchen and yard waste, would be around $200 per household, followed by an increase of $20 per year thereafter for replacements.

There might be additional costs based on factors not explored at this time, such as communication or implementation costs and the introduction of significant yard waste tonnage into the collection system that would attract tipping fees.

Councillor Denis Sauvé expressed his concerns that the ACRD was not fully on board with the service. “I’m very concerned that the regional district is not involved with us in this project,” he said. “I feel we’re putting the cart before the horse, because I’d rather we have a set collection place and a processor before we start talking about collection.”

Sauvé also asked if the service would be mandatory for everybody.

Pley said that the city could make the service voluntary, but this wouldn’t make a lot of sense.

“Eventually when the regional district gets to a position where they require all garbage to be separated—and I believe they will get there—then it will become mandatory from them.”

Pley said, regarding the ACRD, “Staff have been very cooperative with our requests and our questions about this issue. It’s just not their priority right now. We’re kind of driving this. “

Pley also confirmed that the service wouldn’t affect taxation, because it is paid for by user fees.

Councillor Ron Paulson was fully in support of this initiative. “It’s not rocket science,” he said. “There’s other communities doing this, and why we don’t go in there and pick a model.”

Council agreed to pursue provision of a kitchen and yard waste collection service utilizing city resources. Pley said implementation would be around September 2018.

elena.rardon@albernivalleynews.com



Elena Rardon

About the Author: Elena Rardon

I have worked with the Alberni Valley News since 2016.
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