North Battleford council finally looks ready to say "good riddance" to communal garbage bins.
Council passed a resolution to authorize city administration to issue a request for proposal to implement a black rollout bin system for solid waste as well as a blue rollout bin system for recyclable materials at all city residential properties during the 2014 fiscal year.
That resolution passed unanimously by a 6-0 vote at Monday night's meeting.
Once the request for proposal is put out, City officials expect to get a better idea of how much it would cost to make the switch to rollout bins before coming to any decisions on whether to go ahead with the changeover.
For now, the city is only looking at an RFP for black bins and blue bins. Brown bins or green bins for composting could come later.
Currently most North Battleford households use back-alley communal bins, with rollout garbage bins used in only one section of the city as a pilot project. For recycling, residents have the option to either use a 95-gallon curbside "one stream" rollout blue bin for recycling, or to take recyclables to one of the three "one stream" recycling depots in the city
An extensive memorandum was compiled by numerous city officials and presented by Public Works Director Stewart Schafer Monday.
While it included many facts and figures, its message was simple. "The main point of it is we are losing money on the communal bins," said Schafer.
His report stated the city averaged between $100,000 and $300,000 in lost revenue and costs associated with improper disposal of residential and non-residential materials in the communal bins and recycling depots.
The memo noted that non-ratepayers from other communities have been able to dispose of solid waste materials for free in the communal bins rather than taking them to the waste management facility. A main concern, heard often at City Hall over the past several years, have been reports of large items such as furniture, appliances, and trees being dumped into the communal bins by those coming in from outside the city.
The memo noted City taxpayers have been "paying $4,000 to $10,000 in employee salaries per month" for administration, public works, parks, peace officers and fire fighters to be diverted from their primary job responsibilities to address safety issues and matters related to improper disposal of materials in communal bins and recycle depots.
Schafer's memo also pointed to success in the pilot project where the rollout bins are used in the city.
The neighbourhood running along 110th Street from Diefenbaker Drive to 7th Avenue saw a 15 to 25 per cent reduction of residential solid waste sent to the waste management facility, according to Schafer's report.
In his presentation to council Schafer pointed to a comment from recently-departed Finance Director Matthew Hartney, who said many people assume the landfill is in the northeast corner of the city. But "the facts show that our landfill is behind our yards, in back alleys with the communal bins."
That was a reference to reports of tons of garbage being dumped on the ground outside of the overflowing communal bins in the alleys, an issue City officials have heard about repeatedly over the past number of years.
In speaking to reporters after the meeting Schafer pointed to even more issues with communal bins, including some unwanted interest from some new winged arrivals to the city.
"The ravens are coming in," said Schafer, referring to a comment at the meeting from Councillor Don Buglas about the number of ravens seen in the city.
Schafer noted other issues with the communal bins, such as lids getting either accidentally or purposely broken. The other big problem, he said, is that the bins get flipped up onto the fence when the garbage is picked up.
What happens is the "lids fall back down and then when placed back in their places against the fence, you can't flip the system over. This is a regular occurrence so we're getting rodents and ravens and pigeons and seagulls and all sorts of wonderful little critters getting into those cans and having a feast, where it could cause some problems with health."
As for recycling, Schafer noted they were looking at moving to blue recycling bins across the city, and to remove the current recycling depots, which have seen issues of their own. "They were abused badly," he said.
Schafer said all sorts of inappropriate material including electronics, paint cans and the like were being thrown into the recycle depots.
"You name it, we got it," said Schafer. "We're just saying this has got to stop, folks. The only way we can do that is by saying everybody is responsible for their own garbage." His memo on the subject was welcomed by councillors, including Ryan Bater.
"Our bin system is abused so badly," said Bater, who noted the abuse was coming from "residents and non-residents alike. I mean furniture, grass clippings, people from out of town dumping their garbage in there. It's just absolutely abused."
Still, Bater said he would harness his excitement until he saw proposals on the costs, calling it a "big factor to consider."
