Residents of the rural areas in the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) could have curbside recycling pickup by the spring of 2010.
The SCRD board voted last Thursday to direct staff to begin designing a request for proposals (RFP) that would involve single or multi-stream curbside pickup and unstaffed depots in Gibsons, Sechelt and Pender Harbour.
The new pickup system would include residents of Halfmoon Bay, Roberts Creek, Elphinstone and West Howe Sound who already receive garbage pickup by the SCRD.
Pender Harbour/Egmont residents as well as residents in the remote rural areas (including Keats and Gambier islands) who are not included in garbage collection would not be included in the new system. The SCRD will look into other options for island residents.
"It will mean a fairly tremendous increase in the level of recycling services that's provided," said Dion Whyte, manager of sustainable services for the SCRD.
Residents would pay for service in their annual utility bills similar to how the District of Sechelt currently runs its curbside recycling program. Whyte said staff expect the system to cost users about $45 per year, based on Sechelt's current costs.
Along with the curbside service, the RFP will ask contractors to bid on privately-operated, unstaffed depots.
It's still too early to know just what costs will be in contractors' bids, but Whyte said SCRD staff are anticipating significant savings for taxpayers with unstaffed depots.
"It's our estimate that the tax-funded portion for the depots could be reduced by as much as 50 per cent from $500,000 to $250,000," he said.
Currently, the lower Coast depots in Gibsons and Sechelt are operated by the SCRD with staff on hand for about six hours per day, and are accessible to the public 24 hours per day.
Whyte admitted that the SCRD depots already have problems with illegal dumping but the "board has to weigh that against the cost of having staffed depots."
Whyte said the unstaffed depots can be used as a backup for people who will not receive curbside services as well as for overflow materials and materials not collected by the contractor, which will very likely include glass.
The board's decision is largely in keeping with the recycling services review steering committee's recommendations upon completing the recycling review in September 2008. That committee, however, recommended increasing the amount of staffing and service at enhanced depots as well as curbside pickup. But, Whyte said, the finances of that are just not practical.
"I think what we're seeing with the decision that the board has made is where the rubber hits the road, and the reality of the situation today is that people are feeling the economic situation. Our budgets are impacted, certainly," he said.
Whyte said the plan for the RFP has to strike a balance between the services SCRD residents want and what they are willing to pay for.
"The board is hearing a lot of different things. On one hand it's 'keep costs down.' On the other hand it's 'we want to see these particular types of services provided.' They've got to find the happy place somewhere in there," he said.
Whyte said the contract wouldn't automatically be awarded to the lowest bidder. Instead, the board will be using a "triple bottom line" approach where each bid will be evaluated based on its economic, social and environmental impacts.
"It is a positive step. Ultimately the board has identified its goal for the solid waste program as being zero-waste, but that is a long road, and this is the logical next step to maximize the amount of materials we divert from landfills," he said.
Whyte said there are still quite a few hurdles to cross before a new program is in place. Staff must design the RFP, review it and have it passed by the board.
The SCRD must then review proposals and award a contract or contracts assuming the offers are acceptable.
"I think it's pretty safe to say that we'll be bringing some draft documents back to committee for their review for September," Whyte said.
"It's conceivable that we could see changes happening on the depot side of things as early as late 2009."
Whyte said the agreement would likely be one where the contractor would collect the recyclables, package them and sell them to processing companies. The price for recyclable material as a commodity fluctuates, so Whyte said the deal should include a caveat that the SCRD will get a share in the revenue if the price for recyclable goods goes 30 per cent above a set average and would reimburse the contractor if the price falls 30 per cent below.
Donna Shugar, SCRD board chair, describes herself as a "rabid recycler" and said it was high time residents in the rural areas had curbside pickup.
"Curbside collection, from the research we've been shown, results in a much higher level of participation from the public," Shugar said. "Going from a 15 to 20 per cent participation rate with depots to an 85 to 90 per cent participation rate with curbside pickup, you have to ask 'why wouldn't you do curbside?'"
Shugar said the move to go to unstaffed depots was a budgetary decision but, she added, with curbside collection in place, there would be less demand for depots and less need for staff to monitor them.
As for illegal dumping at the unstaffed depots, Shugar said the company that wins the contract to run depots would be responsible for maintaining them and taking care of illegal dumping situations.
The move has the support of the municipalities as well. Sechelt Mayor Darren Inkster said it is the right change to ease the tax burden on residents across the SCRD.
Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk said he wishes the SCRD well and does not see the change being out of step with Gibsons' plans to include an enhanced depot with its recycling plan.
The plan does have its critics, though. Buddy Boyd, owner of Gibsons Recycling, an enhanced depot, said unstaffed depots and single stream collection will never be methods to get the SCRD to its goal of being a zero waste community.
"How can we get to zero waste when we can only collect four or five different items?" he asked. "Two of the three RFP options are unsustainable. The only sustainable option in our community is an enhanced depot, and there's no RFP for enhanced depots."
Boyd called single stream pickup a "dumbing-down" of recycling, saying he wished the SCRD would take more effective steps to achieve zero waste.
"We find it ironic that instead of leading us, the contractors, to a higher standard, they've lowered the standard - and see what they're going to get. It's like drift net fishing," Boyd said.
He said there was nothing in the potential request for proposals he would be able to bid on.
