Waste hauler licensing will be a tool the Regional District of Nanaimo utilizes as it targets 90 per cent waste diversion by 2027.
The RDN currently diverts 68 per cent of garbage from its Cedar landfill, which amounts to 347 kilograms per person a year, and 90 per cent would represent 109 kilograms per person annually. The regional district committee of the whole approved a new solid waste management plan Wednesday and recommends the board give approval at its June 26 meeting. A proposed bylaw for waste-hauling business licences is among the elements.
According to the proposal, the RDN would license for-profit haulers moving waste that comes from within its boundaries. In addition to the yet-to-be-determined fee, licensees would be required to pay a fee for anything collected and disposed of at the landfill or incinerated at any facility, whether within RDN boundaries or not. The levy wouldn’t be applicable to recyclables.
One of the purposes of the levy is to hinder waste generators disposing of garbage outside the region from avoidance of paying their share.
Licensees would pay reduced tipping fees at the landfill and transfer stations. The tipping fee and the levy will be less than the tipping fee for non-licensees.
“This fee differential, which favours the licensed haulers, will be set at a rate aimed to encourage the flow of waste to industry before it is brought to RDN disposal facilities,” according to the plan.
Licencees would need to keep track of waste and recyclables, submit records and be subject to audit.
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In addition, the plan also calls for mandatory waste source separation regulations, expanded zero waste education, expanded industrial, commercial and institutional waste management, expanded construction and demolition waste management and zero waste recycling, potentially costing RDN taxpayers an additional $4.09 per $100,000 of assessed value.
If the board approves, the plan would be submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy for approval, said Larry Gardner, RDN solid waste services manager.
Gardner said additional consultation with affected parties will also be needed and if bylaws are developed, the ministry will need to give approval as well.
“If the board approves it, we’re probably looking [at] four to six months for the ministry to approve it and although we can start to do some of the leg work, we really wouldn’t be doing anything substantive until after that, it really puts us into 2019,” Gardner said when asked about when implementation would begin.
To see the plan, go to www.rdn.bc.ca and click on June 12 on the calendar.
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