Recycling Compliance a Work in Progress
Prince George, B.C. – Just over four months in, curbside recycling looks like a work in progress in Prince George.
Allen Langdon, managing director of Multi-Material BC, says the compliance rate so far is “at about 60% plus” but notes he’s still pleased with how things have gone so far.
“I think it’s going well for a program launched in a jurisdiction that previously hasn’t had curbside recycling. Obviously there’s still room for improvement.”
He hopes the improvement comes through something he calls “change management.”
“I think when you look at most programs (compliance) is probably in the high 90’s% range but you have to keep in mind most of these programs have been around for upwards of 15 to 25 years. So I don’t think any of them had that rate right out of the gate.”
Langdon expects compliance for the roughly 22,000 customers in Prince George to “climb up to something like 80% plus” within the next year.
He’s also excited about their partnership with the Canada Winter Games and how that will lead to an expansion of recycling here.
“As part of that sponsorship we’re providing recycling carts for use during the games and then after the games they will be turned over to our contractor Emterra who will be using them for multi-family recycling.”
He says that will make recycling available to people living in apartment and condo buildings.
“It means we’ll have total comprehensive service in Prince George which is one of the reasons we went forward with it.”
Comments
“Participation” would be a much better word than “compliance”. Compliance sounds like it is mandatory and not voluntary. You can usually tell someones’ stripes by the words they choose.
Those nice boxes they gave everyone make good flower planters! You might want to throw a coat of paint at them though.
According to the instruction package that came before the bins the small one is supposed to be fore what in our house anyways is the more common and bulky recyclable, cardboard. Would’ve made more sense to make them both large. It it only picked up every 2nd garbage day, so I still find myself having to go to the transfer station. Glad the service is available, but it could use some tweaks
It would have made more sense to have recycling picked up every week and garbage picked up every second week. I am sure there is a transition period, after which fines for non-compliance will be introduced. I am not satisfied with how the whole thing was introduced as it resulted in higher prices in stores to pay for the recycling, but people who live in apartments or other such housing do not have such recycling.
Comments for this article are closed.