Council Says No To Recycling Proposal from MMBC
Monday, August 26, 2013 @ 6:37 PM
Prince George, B.C. – City Council has voted unanimously to reject a proposal from MultiMaterials BC that would see the City pick up the recycling, in exchange for a $32 per household “incentive”. But the proposed contract is heavily weighed in favour of MMBC. For instance, other communities which have successful recycling programs, have contamination rates (items in the recycling stream that should not be there) between 5-7%. The contract proposed by MMBC would allow a maximum contamination rate of 3% per load and there would be a $5 thousand dollar fine for each load which exceeds the contamination limit. Councilor Cameron Stolz says with 15 loads every two weeks, over the course of the year those fines could amount to $2 million a year. If a load is diverted to the landfill instead of being delivered to MMBC, the fine is $25 thousand dollars per load.
In addition, the City would have to buy 3 new trucks and 22,500 recycling containers.
Councilor Dave Wilbur says this is another case of downloading, that the local taxpayer would have to pick up extra costs. He advised Council of the recent presentation to the Regional District by the head of MMBC, Allan Langdon, where it was indicated the incentive that was being offered to the City would cover “most” of the City’s cost for picking up the recyclables and delivering them to a recycling centre. “There was no sense of a consultative process, it was basically a take it or leave it proposition” says Wilbur. He says he has no difficulty at all in recommending the City say “No” to the proposal. “What I find particularly puzzling about this take it or leave it contract, is how this would fall within MAG, that is the Municipal Auditor General Program, which was put in place in order to keep us from doing something stupid. This certainly falls under the category as far as I’m concerned, yet the Province seems to be complicit in this, and I think its time for them to take another look.”
“We all want curbside recycling” said Councillor Albert Koehler, “but it’s absolutely wrong to be pressured into agreeing and signing something under pressure.”
“For me, this is super frustrating” said Mayor Shari Green who says she is constantly being asked by residents when will the City have a curbside recycling program, but this proposal is not in the best interests of the City “It’s pretty one sided, there’s no question about that.”
The Council’s refusal to enter into a contract with MMBC means MMBC will have to find an independent contractor to do the job.
Comments
âbut itâs absolutely wrong to be pressured into agreeing and signing something under pressure.â
Mr. Koehler, perhaps now you understand how we feel about some of council’s decisions.
“the Municipal Auditor General Program, which was put in place in order to keep us from doing something stupid.”
Too bad they haven’t intervened is some of council’s decisions too.
I drive by recycling bins every day and find it no problem to stop and dump off my recycling when my bin at home gets full. would rather continue doing this than have to pay extra for the curbside pick up. There are options for people that prefer to pay for curbside pick up at a reasonable $10/month…probably much cheaper than what our city would turn around and charge for the same service.
I believe council made the correct decision on this matter. The City does have a recycling program, it may require a little more tweaking, but it’s there and available for anyone who wants to use it.
recycle recycle recycle
the earth will thank you !
double: “I drive by recycling bins every day and find it no problem to stop and dump off my recycling when my bin at home gets full. would rather continue doing this than have to pay extra for the curbside pick up.”
Bingo.
Unfortunately, I think the present “recycling” system, in Prince George, is a joke, other than for newspapers, tins, and boxes. To properly “recycle” all your material, you have to drive all over town and even then you can’t recycle everything.I would think driving all over town defeats the purpose. 5 times, I went to the depot on First ave., to put in my collection of glass jars, each time it was impossibly busy. I threw them in the garbage. Recycling, especially in Prince George, is too fragmented, too inefficient, too difficult and not working, and probably ineffective, granted with a couple of exceptions.
Good decision by council. The real business plan here for MMBC is the fines and fees for contaminated loads and they set the bar so low so as to guarantee it is lucrative for them.
I use BlueJewel.ca and it costs just $12/mo (for 2 pick ups/mo). Because of this wonderful service, I was able to switch down to the small trash container for my usual garbage which offsets the recycling cost. Hopefully, if the city takes this service over, they will keep their pricing comparable!
Good point, bigmom. It’s very doubtful the City could do it for less than $12 / month. Once again, there’s no reason for the City to get into competition with existing private business.
i agree, bigmom. we were with bluejewel for over a year but recently switched to R3 when bluejewel told us they were no longer accepting plastics. this was the main reason we wanted a recycling service, it’s the vast majority of our waste, so we made the switch. maybe bluejewel has changed their policy since we switched, but either way, it leads to less going into the landfill. i think people that aren’t recycling to the full extent would be astounded as to how much of their ‘garbage’ is recyclable. it’s at least 50%. if you can afford it, give it a try. with R3, we don’t even have to separate our stuff, so don’t let that be an impediment.
mikmak, Bluejewel’s policy is due to the China’s recently established ‘green wall’ (google it).
As for what R3 is doing with certain plastics, you may want to ask them.
This town’s recycling program is a joke – anyone that thinks otherwise needs to leave the city limits of PG once in awhile and see how things are done in other places.
Ironically we have the “Green University in Canada” yet Prince George still can’t sort their garbage on organized scale for the citizens. This was being done in places in Vancouver in the 90’s with different bins. Some times it’s about doing the right thing not the cheapest thing. Even in Willow River have a volunteer Recycle Centre that almost everyone uses built by the community for the community and funds go back to the community. Paper, Plastic, glass, tin, batteries, and a few more.
Blue Jewel simply drops their materials off at City and Regional District facilities for further transport and processing. All you are paying Blue Jewel for is the pickup.
And that’s all we’d be paying the City for as well if they took it over, hopfully the City will be just $6/pickup too…
well aware of it, JohnnyBelt, and asked R3 all the questions before switching. because bluejewel doesn’t have the facilities to process the plastic in any way, their plastic is much less marketable. R3 faces the same issue. at the moment, they’re stockpiling all the plastic they pick up, with the goal of purchasing a plastic shredder/processor by year’s end, if they haven’t already. apparently the cleaned and shredded plastic is much more appealing to producers.
does the city of prince george have any kind of processing facilities for recyclables? any one know?
And that’s all we’d be paying the City for as well if they took it over, hopfully the City will be just $6/pickup too…
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