The City of Campbell River is looking to bring in curbside collection of organic waste once the new regional composting facility is operational, but the logistics of what that service will look like still need to be worked out.
Council has submitted an application to the CleanBC Organics Infrastructure and Collection Program that would see up to two-thirds the cost of such a program picked up by the provincial government, but the remaining third would need to be funded by the city.
“Solid Waste services for the City of Campbell River will be changing in the future as we look at adding organic curbside collection services once the Regional Organics Processing Facility is built,” reads the staff report presented to council Feb. 8. The changes are anticipated to start in the fall of 2022, according to the report, but “what this service looks like moving forward will require a review of the current system with new options for Council to consider in an upcoming Committee of the Whole Meeting.”
Drew Hadfield, director of operations for the city, says there are a number of adjustments that will likely need to be made to the way waste collection is done in the city once the organics facility is up and running.
“We’re going to have to decide as a community as to how we’re going to collect at the curbside,” Hadfield told council. “Whether we’re going to move to a cart system where we would have an automated or semi-automated system or whether we’d continue with the same type of collection we have now where people provide their own bins and it’s collected at the curbside.”
“I have some concerns about the uptake we’ll see for organics collection, but I think this will be an important aspect of our waste management program and if we can secure a grant, so much the better,” says Coun. Charlie Cornfield, who also wanted to know if collecting organic materials separately from other household garbage would lead to a change to the current garbage pickup schedule.
“Absolutely,” Hadfield says. “That’s part of the discussion. I’ll be presenting different options to council, but with the weekly collection of organics and yard waste, we would probably be looking at going to the option of a bi-weekly garbage pickup.”
Watch the Mirror for updates as decisions are made on this subject going forward.
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