North Battleford City Hall has declared war on placing unacceptable items in the recycling bins.
The city has been mounting a public information campaign cracking down on items such as diapers, plastics, styrofoam, glass, grease, dirt, grass clippings and other items being placed in the blue recycling bins.
An enforcement campaign has been going on this month. Fines start at $100 for the first offence, $200 for the second offence and $300 for a third offence, but infractions can jump to $5,000 per additional offence.
There has been some pushback. One local individual, Brock Youst, posted on Facebook after his blue bin was not picked up by the city. He said in a video that the City of North Battleford was planning to send him a $100 fine in the mail after he had put a plastic pipe in his blue bin, mistakenly thinking it would be accepted as recyclable. It turned out to be a disallowed item.
“Heads up people, The City of NB ain’t “cracking down”, they’re going corrupt and crazy! between the ridiculous price of property taxes, already high utility bills, “CSO’s” always flexing their muscles and ticketing for the hell of it (haven’t got a parking ticket on my street for awhile luckily) etc etc, I think it’s time for me to rethink living in town lol. It’s far more then the $100 bulls*** fine, it’s the “power and principal” behind it!”
The city, however, has been justifying the enforcement effort by saying they are trying to divert items away from the waste management facility. Officials have cited the cost of building a new cell at the facility, estimated at $2 million.
During his State of the City update held last Wednesday on the Zoom platform, Mayor Ryan Bater acknowledged that violations were being issued to individuals for not following the rules for the blue bins. Bater also made it known that the city was not targeting individuals in cases where there was some ambiguity, such as plastic garbage bags.
“This is not about a cash grab, this is not about generating revenue, this is about asset management and getting most life out of that cell as we possibly can,” said Bater.
He noted that when non-recyclable items end up in the recycling bin, the items are considered spoiled and it ends up being sent to the landfill instead, contributing to filling up the cell at a rate they are not comfortable with.
The enforcement effort began in early June. At their meeting on June 8, administration reported that city staff had gone out the previous Tuesday, June 2, and Thursday, June 4, to inspect bins in the city.
Director of Finance Steve Brown had gone out on the June 2 inspection, while Fire Chief Lindsay Holm went out June 4. They used a computer GIS program to log the locations where the infractions were found.
The inspections turned up some unusual items. Brown noted items such as a lawn chair and a used grease container were found in the recycling bins on June 2.
Both Brown and Holm reported there had been overwhelming positive support expressed for the enforcement of the blue bins. “Lots of people came out and gave us a pat on the back for doing it,” Brown said.
Holm said he experienced the same thing. He reported that they found 42 blue bins with contamination that particular Thursday.
Holm also noted most people were “doing very well” in following the rules. “People are trying to do what they are supposed to do,” said Holm. “But we still have some issues.”
Brown provided a further update at the Monday, June 22, meeting. In his report it was noted approximately 250 bylaw infraction tickets have been issued for such items as diapers, grass clippings, oil and other non-recyclable materials placed in recycle bins.
Approximately 5,300 properties with residential bins, or 4.7 per cent of the overall bins, received tickets, but Brown noted the vast majority, 95 per cent, are compliant and following the rules.
Brown also reported that as of June 26, all city residential recycle bins will have been covered as least once. The plan is to go back at it again next week and to place new labels on bins as well as focus on other non-recyclable items such as plastic bags, chocolate bar wrappers and other grey recycling. Tickets will not be handed out initially, but staff will place orange education notices on bins identifying that these items were found. Tickets will still be issued for the grossly-negligent items such as diapers, compost and so on.
It was also noted there was vast improvement seen in the recycling loads sent to Loraas, with less contamination. There are plans to bring the manager for Loraas to a council meeting in July to provide an update on what they are seeing.
There was also discussion at council Monday about another issue raised in a letter from a local landlord, regarding contamination of blue bins at rental properties. The letter-writer had expressed concern that landlords were being held responsible for the actions of tenants placing unacceptable items in the bins.
“The city is not providing a business-friendly environment and causes victimizing of landlords by forcing landlords to pay cash for tenants intentionally contaminating the recycle bin without recourse. Landlords are helpless to monitor what other folks put in their recycle bins and privacy laws also prevent me from snooping through peoples recycle bins,” the correspondence stated.
In response, councillors requested to have some information brought back to council on multi family units where there might be three or four bins.
Councillor Len Taylor suggested finding out if it was possible to allow a multi family property to simply withdraw from the program, because “a seriously contaminated blue bin can contaminate an entire truckload.”
Councillor Kevin Steinborn agreed with Taylor’s sentiments, and suggested replacing the blue bins with garbage bins because the items are “going to the landfill anyway.” City Manager Randy Patrick said he would bring back information at the next council meeting.
