The Town of Creston launched its curbside collection consultation campaign on Oct. 26, where data and input from the community will be gathered to help shape the town’s approach to expanding its curbside waste collection program to include kitchen scraps and recyclables in addition to garbage and yard waste collection.
The bulk of the engagement will be conducted through online and telephone surveys, where 360 random homes will be contacted. The survey can be filled out at creston.ca or at the digital kiosk located at Pealow’s Independent Grocer.
“The survey is designed to get a feel for how people feel about the current service, what people are doing with their waste now and what they need to see out of our new service,” said Laura Francis, who is leading the community engagement process through her OneDay Community Partners consultation company.
Data will be collected until Nov. 9 and will be used to create a guide for council to help them move forward and decide how to shape the expanded service.
“Right now, we’re committed to a minimal amount of change. That’s starting to collect kitchen waste, which will happen weekly. Starting to collect certain recyclables, and that will happen every other week,” said Francis. “Garbage will move to every other week, alternating with recycling. That’s the schedule; it’s called EOW — every other week.”
The community consultation campaign is the first phase in the town’s approach to expanding the program. Phase two — program planning — is scheduled for January to August 2021, while phase three — implementation — is slated to run from September to December 2021.
“Things should be more convenient for households, the local environment should benefit and the local economy will benefit,” said Francis.
READ MORE: Town of Creston to begin community consultation regarding curbside pickup expansion
The Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) has plans to launch a composting facility at the Creston landfill site in the fall of 2021, which Francis said prompted the town to expand its curbside collection program.
“A lot of the kitchen waste that’s collected will go to a local facility to ensure that they are being processed in a way that produces Grade A compost that food can be grown in,” she said. “That should end up benefiting local farms and potentially local gardeners as well, depending on what’s decided.”
An additional composting facility will open outside of Salmo, but she said that the bulk of the jobs created through the RDCK’s project will come out of the Creston location.
“The cost of disposing garbage at the landfill is going up. The less we’re sending to the landfill, the more money we save,” she said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that the town is expanding its curbside waste collection program to include residential organics and recyclables in addition to solid waste pickup. To clarify, the expansion looks to include kitchen scraps and recyclables in addition to garbage and yard waste collection.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that paper versions of the survey can be found at town hall. The town had plans for a paper copy, but decided to give those residents who can’t participate online the option of requesting a telephone interview instead. Interviews can be booked by calling 1-800-296-2237 by Nov. 4, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. from Monday to Friday.
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