Salmon Arm’s curbside recycling program appears to be working well, though the city recognizes more work is needed to sort out the sorting of recyclables.
The city’s contract with Multi-Materials British Columbia for the collection of recyclables has been in place since May 2014, while Columbia Shuswap Regional District recycling depots have been operating under MMBC since Jan. 2015.
City staff say during that time, the transition, from an operational standpoint, has been smooth. The same trucks and drivers were on the same routes and scheduling did not change, says city engineering and public works director Rob Niewenhuizen in a report to council.
There was, however, a small number of additions to what is collected in the curbside bag program, as well as a few deletions including plastic shopping bags and film (such as Glad Wrap).
Monitoring by the city, as well as a performance summary from MMBC, indicates those deleted items, as well as items that were never allowed in the bag program to begin with (glass), are being left on the curb. Sometimes these items are caught, and the bags are left at the curb with a sticker stating why it wasn’t taken.
The MMBC summary, however, shows that sometimes bags with rejected items are being collected, resulting in some contamination of recyclables.
“The CSRD recycling depots have been operation under MMBC since Jan. 1… at which time film and Styrofoam was added to the list of materials accepted at the depot,” states Niewenhuizen’s report. “Unfortunately, bag rejections increased at this time which staff attribute to confusion as to where the added materials (plastic film and Styrofoam) were accepted.”
The MMBC summary includes information from an audit, showing recyclable loads collected in Salmon Arm exceeded the three per cent weight limit of unaccepted materials by more than seven per cent (10.23 per cent total). Included among these contaminants were hazardous materials (amounting to .13 per cent) and glass (.87 per cent). Niewenhuizen notes there is a penalty with associated fines up to $3,750 per load for non-compliance. However, he says the city, while significantly over the target contamination rate, has been assured by MMBC that it is not out of line with other communities.
“They are looking to see improvement in the rates over time and not have to start fining…,” says Niewenhuizen.
He considers education key to getting further compliance.
“I think it comes down to education and buy-in by residents to lower this contamination.”
To help achieve this, the city mailed out fridge magnets detailing what is accepted in the bag program and what goes to depot.
In addition, the city and the CSRD ran the Recycling Hero program in which representatives went door-to-door doing visual checks of recycling bags on the curb and “target educating” residents in the process.
Council agreed to the need for more education. Coun. Kevin Flynn empathized with those who might be confused regarding the recycling of plastic films and bags, which were included in the recyclable schedule prior to MMBC taking over.
“It really was plastics that people started worrying about and thinking about for recycling, and then, to not be able to throw them in the bags anymore, I can see that being a struggle…,” said Flynn. “I think we just have to keep pushing the education and making people aware.
“Unfortunately, I think, for a lot of us, if we can’t put it in our recycling bag it just goes back in the garbage. That’s unfortunate but I think that’s what’s happening in a lot of cases.”