The new year will bring about a big change to garbage collection in Port Coquitlam.
At a council meeting held Tuesday at Kwayhquitlum middle school, councillors approved the reduction of garbage pickup from weekly to once every two weeks as of Jan. 1, 2010 and decided to dump Christmas tree collection.
The moves come after the city decided to collect food scraps in its green waste carts instead of the garbage starting Nov. 2. A recent trial in Harbourside Estates, received favourable reaction in a survey to the food scrap diversion and biweekly collection.
But one councillor wanted the city to slow down the changes, especially since Port Coquitlam already has one of the best garbage collection systems in Greater Vancouver.
“I’m leery to start to tinker with something that works very well,” said Coun. Brad West. “I’m concerned about the timeline. We need the community to buy in. I’m not convinced we have the buy-in yet.”
The rest of council was buying in and said residents would too.
“Just because we’ve done something well for 40 years doesn’t mean we couldn’t do this better,” said Mayor Greg Moore.
“There’s going to be a huge learning curve for residents. We’ll have some speed bumps along the way but, in the end, we’re going to have a better service that others will be jealous of.”
Coun. Mike Forrest believes residents are up for the change. “The reality is we need to get on with it,” he said. “We need to iron out the bumps and figure them out.”
Coun. Michael Wright said the biggest worries are the odours and insects that can accumulate over two weeks but it’s up to the city to take a leadership role in letting residents know ways to reduce those problems.
The city estimates the savings for biweekly pickup at $73,000 from lower overtime, fuel and maintenance costs, plus another $35,000 to $45,000 on disposal costs.
But there will be start-up costs. A city hall report says $15,000 will be needed for public education and another $16,000 will go toward providing larger containers to residents who will need them because of the less frequent pickups. Residents will be given six months to determine if they’ve got the appropriate cart size.
The city estimates the biweekly collection will mean a reduction of 51.46 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a city staff report.
PoCo believes it will also pick up $9,000 in revenue from a new rate structure. There will also be increases to its one-time container charges which haven’t changed since the program’s implementation in 2004.
A large garbage cart (360 litres) will go from $30 to $45 while a large green waste cart will increase from $10 to $15. Additional containers will be twice the cost of the first one (for example, a second large container will be $90). The report estimates the city will get $9,000 in additional revenue from those sales.
Eliminating Christmas tree collecting will be a $6,000 saving. The city’s old rear-loading trucks were capable of taking the trees but those vehicles will soon be retired. The city is suggesting residents can dispose of their trees at sites operated by charitable groups or, if no tinsel or chemical sprays have been put on them, they can be cut into pieces and included in the yard waste collection cart.
That also got West’s back up. “A savings of $6,000 doesn’t seem like much. I don’t know whether phasing out of that service is going to be worth the savings.”
West was the only councillor to vote against the moves.
ggranger@tricitynews.com
TRASH TALK
Port Coquitlam’s new rate structure for garbage will include:
• Households that continue to use the standard 240-litre carts will see no change in fees.
• Households that produce above-average amounts of garbage can receive a larger or second cart for a higher annual fee plus delivery/administrative charge. The higher rate will not be applied for the first six months of 2010 to allow households to adjust to the new schedule.
• Households that produce below-average amounts of garbage and switch to a 120-litre cart will receive a discount.
• Additional recycling and green waste carts are also available with a one-time delivery/administrative charge but no increase in annual rates.