The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) will soon start deconstructing mattresses at the Sechelt landfill for an $8 fee, instead of allowing the mattresses to be dumped with other refuse.
Directors gave their preliminary approval of the plan during the infrastructure services committee meeting on Feb. 5.
Last year the SCRD put a pilot project in place to capture mattresses being sent to the dump and deconstruct them in order to save space in the landfill. Most of the material from a mattress can be recycled.
In 2014 the pilot project (which ran from April to December) saw about 150 mattresses per month arrive at the Sechelt landfill. Those mattresses were successfully deconstructed and recycled at a cost of about $23,000 in staff time.
In order to continue with the program and also recover some of the costs, directors opted for an $8 fee to be charged for each mattress dropped off at the dump ($5 per crib mattress).
Although the full cost of recovery is estimated at $15 per mattress, directors were concerned a higher fee might lead to more illegal dumping of mattresses in the woods.
All were in favour of proceeding with the $8 fee.
A bylaw amendment will come to the SCRD board in the future to put the new fee in place.
AJB update
The SCRD is still not satisfied with AJB Investment’s logging containment measures at a site in the Chapman Creek watershed, although the company has halted all logging in the area.
“We conducted two environmental monitoring visits in January and not a lot has changed in terms of condition of the site,” said engineering technician Monte Staats. “Water with elevated levels of turbidity is still leaving the site, and the erosion and sediment control measures appear to have not been maintained or repaired.
“That said, it doesn’t appear there are any major impacts to Chapman Creek from the harvesting area.”
The Managed Forest Council is conducting an investigation into concerns raised by the SCRD and Vancouver Coastal Health in relation to AJB’s sediment control measures.
“As part of that investigation, a rep from the Managed Forest Council met with staff to question us on our environmental monitoring program, and since that meeting we haven’t received any information from their investigation,” Staats said.
The SCRD plans to continue monitoring turbidity at the water treatment plant fed by Chapman Creek and investigate further if any spikes in turbidity are found.
“We’re also going to continue to request information from AJB regarding their 2015 plans,” Staats said.
Staff noted that the turbidity is being checked above and below the AJB site in order to ensure any turbidity found isn’t from a landslide or natural event upstream, as was the case during rain storms in December.
MMBC money
Directors recommended using $22,000 of the revenue projected from the SCRD’s contract with Multi Materials B.C. (MMBC) to offset administrative services and $6,700 to fund recycling education and outreach in 2015.
The remaining $93,300 expected from the contract was recommended to be placed in a reserve fund to enhance depot recycling services in the future.
The plan will be forwarded to budget deliberations for more discussion.
MMBC provides a financial incentive to the SCRD to operate depot recycling services locally ($2.50 per household per year for administration and 75 cents per household each year for education and outreach) and pays a variable revenue to the SCRD based on material type and tonnage recycled.
