The launch of the new recycling program at Columbia shuswap Regional District depots was smoother at some sites than others.
Trying to make the transition from a co-mingled system to one that requires sorting recyclables into six categories as smooth as possible has been a bit of a challenge for staff, says Environmental Health lead Ben Van Nostrand.
“It’s one of the busiest starts to a new year I’ve ever had,” he said last Thursday. “It’s been a bit of a learning curve, and that’s putting it mildly.”
Miscommunication between the regional district and Emterra, the company responsible for picking up recyclables from Bill’s Bottle Depot until midnight Dec. 31, resulted in overflowing bins and a “rough start” for the new program.
Van Nostrand said Emterra had been trying to hold off on going to the depot to remove their large, familiar green bins until their contract had ended.
This resulted in overflowing bins.
“There was some miscommunication, maybe on both sides, that led to some issues,” he said, noting the depot operator made several calls last Friday to get the bins removed, something that apparently happened after the depot closed. “One day the bins were there and the next day they were gone, but there was still stuff on the ground.”
Another issue that complicated the launch was the number of Salmon Arm residents who missed curbside collection over Christmas and took their co-mingled blue bags to the depot.
While several of the new commodities have been added to the curbside collection program, some remain unacceptable – plastic foam packaging, glass and plastic bags or plastic film, which are part of the depot drop-off program only.
If a driver spots unacceptable material in the blue bag, he will leave it at the curb. If too much of the material ends up being collected, MMBC will fine the city. For a complete list of acceptable curbside items visit www.salmonarm.ca and type ‘recycling’ in the search window.
Meanwhile, Van Nostrand says that by Wednesday the Bill’s Bottle site looked fantastic and people at the depot were thanking him for adding the new categories such as plastic film and Styrofoam and saying they were happy to separate the material.
“We’ve had to hire a bunch of contractors so there’s a bit of an uptake on employment,” he said, noting that in the first week of 2015, more than 2,000 cubic feet of materials including Styrofoam had already been collected from the Shuswap by Materials Management BC (MMBC).
“The other big thing is we haven’t paid anything for that; it’s all paid for by MMBC,” he said. “They are collecting and processing the material.”
And the savings will be used for new recycling programs such as food waste diversion and a permanent hazardous waste disposal facility.
“Through savings, we have budgeted to have a permanent facility up and running in 2016 instead of having a hazardous waste round-up every two years,” Van Nostrand says. “And other options are included in the new Solid Waste Management Plan, which will be brought to the board by February or March.”
Van Nostrand says the transition so far has been better than he thought – at most depots. Tempers have been hot at the Salmon Arm Landfill, despite the presence of contractors who are not only providing information on the new system, but actually offering to help people sort their recycling.
“Someone will just throw their stuff on the ground and say ‘screw you’,” says Van Nostrand of the attitude some attendants are dealing with. “They’re saying, ‘I’ll dump it in the garbage.’”
That can be a costly response, as doing that will earn people a disincentive fee and other penalties.
“We’ve asked attendants to get licence plate numbers and if it’s a bylaw issue we’ll follow up on it,” he says. “Attendants are only trying to help; it’s not their fault and they’ll even help you sort your stuff.”
Van Nostrand is frustrated that some people are saying they were not told about impending changes, despite the regional district’s attempt to reach everyone within CSRD over the last several months through newspaper advertisements, their website, Facebook and Twitter.
Van Nostrand was receiving mixed reviews from South Shuswap.
“CSRD has partnered with Bill’s, Sorrento Firehall and Tappen Co-op,” he says. “We have begged them to help us make this work, but at the end of the day, if they are inundated with garbage, they’re gonna walk and there won’t be a depot.”