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Rural residents to get food-waste bins with wheels

Curbside Collection
food waste
Consultant Jeff Ainge walks directors through a series of choices on containers for food waste. He is holding the 77-litre container, which was rejected. The 46-litre bin with the locking lid is below it.

“Compromise sucks,” said chair Lori Pratt after she voted along with the rest of the rural Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors to choose a 46-litre bin with a flip-up locking lid, one handle and two wheels as the device of choice for food waste curbside pickup.

After consultant Jeff Ainge presented the merits of curbside food waste pickup, rural directors made a slew of decisions about the service essentials and voted to move ahead with a request for proposal (RFP) for a contractor to take it on.         

In addition to the bin size, they decided that food waste pickup should be weekly, that a “starter kit” be provided with instructions and information about the service, that a mobile app be included – used to remind people of pickup days – and that “kitchen catchers” – smaller bins for food waste collection in the kitchen – be excluded from the service.

The bulk of directors opted for the mid-sized bin versus a 23-litre or 77-litre option because of the “rodent resistant” locking lid.

Pratt stated her opposition to the bin after the vote, later clarifying with Coast Reporter that while it’s handy that the bin has wheels, “larger bins encourage more items to be throw into them,” and by purchasing them when not everyone needs a bin, it’s creating more need for plastics. “The bin wasn’t a big enough hill to die on, however,” she added. “It was more important to move the RFP forward.”

Directors also discussed the possibility of an opt-out program, with both Elphinstone and Roberts Creek directors saying some of their constituents would favour the option.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people in the community who want to be able to opt out and a lot of them ironically are the most enthusiastic recyclers,” said Elphinstone director Donna McMahon, calling them “the environmental stars.”

David Croal, representing Gibsons, said the opt-out program has worked for the Town, but McMahon said with more people likely to opt out in the rural areas, and more pickup locations, the cost involved would make it less attractive, and since the people using the service would take on the cost of managing an opt-out program, it would be “fundamentally unfair.”

Roberts Creek director Andreas Tize said 70 per cent of his community would be “up in arms” if an opt-out option wasn’t provided.

More opt-out discussions are expected, as well as a decision, at a future committee.

The residential curbside collection program is expected to start in 2020.