Salmon Arm residents will have more opportunities to kick their yard waste to the curb beginning next September.
At it's Nov. 12 meeting, city council voted to award SCV Contractors Corporation (SCV Waste Solutions) a seven-year contract to provide Salmon Arm's curbside collection service for garbage, recycling, compost and yard waste. The contract includes a provision for renewal for an additional three years.
When the new contract begins on July 1, 2025, the service will remain largely the same as it is now, except when it comes to yard waste. City staff recommended the program run monthly, from April to November, beginning in 2026. However, an amendment by council will see yard waste collection begin next September.
SCV is the city's current contractor for curbside pickup, and has been since the program rolled out in 2019, with the intention of separating waste streams to keep compost and recycling out of the landfill. Over the past five years, the program has resulted in an average of 60 per cent being diverted the landfill.
For the new contract, engineering assistant Jon Mills, who has overseen the program from Day 1, explained the city's request for proposals (RFP) included three options. Option 1 involved continuing the program as is, but with a change in the frequency of yard waste collection. Option 2a included automated collection of garbage, compost and recycling, with residents using specialized carts that would be owned by the city. Option 2b was the same as 2a, only the contractor would own the carts.
Mills said the automated options were included based on feedback from the contractor, explaining "there’s much better safety for their staff where they don’t have to exit the truck."
"There’s also improved hiring and retention of staff versus someone having to manually pick up and empty bins, especially the food waste bins which can get kind of smelly in the summer, " said Mills. "It would also improve service levels for residents, so we could look at eliminating the garbage bag tags and the food waste bag tags, some of those additional options that residents currently have to use to dispose of excess food waste and garbage."
Negatives of the automated options include the large carts that would have to be stored by residents and could impact snow removal and street cleaning. Mills said the carts would also pose a higher risk of cross-contamination, "especially in the recycling where materials are no longer visible to the collector."
Reduced emissions were also a consideration in the RFP. Responses, however, indicated electric vehicles not yet practical as they couldn't run a full day on one charge, while there is no public infrastructure for compressed natural gas. Renewable diesel, however, was a readily available option.
Staff recommended going with Option 1, including monthly yard waste pickup.
Of the three proposals received in response to the RFP request, Mills said SCV's prices were 72 per cent less than the second highest proposal, and that the price per household per year for Option 1 would be $132.75.
"Comparing that to remaining (contract) with the bi-annual yard waste collection, there’s only a difference of $4.43 per household per year," said Mills.
The motion to begin monthly yard waste collection next September was tabled by Coun. Tim Lavery. Supportive of the motion, Mayor Alan Harrison said this a good middle ground, giving people time to adjust while reducing the number of yard waste bags collected in November.
Council voted unanimously in support of the amended staff recommendation, with Couns. Kevin Flynn and David Gonella waiting outside of council chambers having declared a potential conflict of interest.
