Councillors in Gibsons continue to mull over what to do about organic waste.
The Town put out a call earlier this year for companies interested in handling organics diversion.
Grayco Ventures, which already has the garbage collection contract for Gibsons and organics pickup in parts of Sechelt, was the only company to respond. Their proposal for curbside pickup would cost about $184.45 per household per year in the first year, then $93.20 after that.
Council has had several discussions about the proposal, and organics was the subject of a recent community dialogue session, but so far they haven’t been able to reach a consensus on what course to follow.
The discussion continued at a special committee of the whole meeting Nov. 16.
Coun. Silas White said he sees reducing the amount of organic waste heading to the landfill as the bottom line, especially with the possibility of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) moving to ban organics and recyclables in the near future as part of a strategy to extend the lifespan of the Sechelt landfill.
“The most logical step for us, regardless of what other programs are offered and where they’re being offered from, is to reduce garbage collection,” he said. “One way of doing that would be to make cans smaller, but I see [going to] every-other-week as most logical.”
Coun. Charlene SanJenko said there also needs to be an incentive for people to compost. “The only piece of this I struggle with is how do you recognize and reward people who are already home composting?”
Town staff, however, told councillors that allowing people to opt out of a collection program would be difficult to administer. Director of finance Ian Poole said that’s especially true for a town the size of Gibsons.
“One of the unfortunate things when we’re in a local government environment is that it’s really one size fits all, and there’s winners and losers in that.”
At one point Coun. Jeremy Valeriote, a former manager of waste reduction and recovery at the SCRD, wondered if it might be time for the Town to consider getting out of the garbage pick-up business altogether and let residents decide who they want to pay to take their waste, how much and how often.
“That’s the other solution out of this quagmire… The big Zero Waste Committee recommendation was pay-as-you-throw and there’s no easier way to pay-as-you-throw than subscription private service,” said Valeriote.
Coun. Stafford Lumley made a similar point.
Mayor Wayne Rowe joked that it sounded like a “return to the 1950s.”
Rowe also reminded councillors that because they have a formal response to a request for proposals to deal with, there are legal issues to consider.
“We’ve got to be very careful now about what we’re doing,” said Rowe.
The current garbage collection contract is set to expire at the end of February 2019, which means the Town will have to open bidding on a new contract next year. The committee voted Nov. 16 to have staff continue to work with Grayco on refining their proposal.
Directors at the SCRD, meanwhile, were scheduled to consider recommendations this week from a recent solid waste workshop involving elected officials from around the Coast. Those recommendations include “implementation of regional disposal bans for recycling and commercial organics.”
