Barrie officials eyeing bi-weekly garbage pickup

By Bob Bruton, Barrie Examiner September 24, 2013
Curbside garbage pickup could be cut to once every two weeks in Barrie.
City councillors will consider the change Monday, although it would still allow two bags of waste to be collected within a two-week period.

One bag of trash can now be collected, once a week, from Barrie homes. Tags for more bags can be purchased from the city.
Recyclables, organics and yard waste would still be collected weekly, on a five-day cycle, under the new proposal, and there’s no limit on the amount.
Every-other-week garbage collection has been shown to increase waste diversion from landfills in other municipalities, according to city staff.
Coun. Lynn Strachan, chairwoman of Barrie’s community services committee, which is responsible for waste collection and disposal, she says this approach was discussed when council adopted its waste management strategy some time ago.
“One of the goals of this program is to increase diversion by increasing the use of the organics program,” she said. “Your organics bin will take most of your ‘smelly’ or ‘yucky’ waste such as food scraps. So, presumably if you used your recycling and organics then you would have little waste in the garbage stream.”
Sandy Coulter, the city’s environmental operations manager, says a change is needed.
“Barrie has been hovering around a 45% diversion rate for many years. In order to increase this rate, we need to do something different,” he said. “By picking up two bags of garbage every other week, we think that more people would take advantage of the weekly recycling and organic waste pick-up, which in return would divert more waste from our landfill.”
Strachan says this program would require more public education and awareness before it would be successful.
If approved by council, the new collection system would begin April 7, 2014.
Changing to bi-weekly garbage pick-up would also save the city money, reducing the waste collection contract to just more than $4 million annually in 2015 from $4.4 million in 2013 (it would be $4.2 million in 2014, with three months of weekly garbage pickup and nine months of bi-weekly pickup).
The new contract could also change container limits for Barrie’s industrial, commercial and institutional sectors to seven a week from 10, again beginning April 7, 2014.
But due to storage limits, garbage collection in downtown Barrie would continue to be done weekly.
Changes to multi-residential garbage and organic collection could be considered during 2015 operating budget discussions.
The changes could be part of a new, eight-year contract with BFI Canada for the collection of garbage, recyclables, organics and yard waste. It includes an option to extend the deal for another two years.
The current contract was originally with Waste Services/Frith Regional Waste, which was bought by BFI.
Payment for the new contract would be based upon a per-tonne rate. Previous collection agreements based compensation on a rate of serviced units.
This isn’t the first time the city has considered changes to its garbage pickup schedule. On May 1, 2006 the garbage-bag limit was reduced to one bag a week from two.
The bag tag fee went to $2 from $1 on Sept. 1, 2005, then to $3 on May 1, 2012.
The city’s sustainable waste management strategy aims to extend Sandy Hollow’s lifespan to 2035.
In 2008, the landfill’s closing date was pegged at 2017. Re-compacting waste there added another seven years to Sandy Hollow’s life, taking it to 2024. The strategy aims to add another decade.
Extending Sandy Hollow’s life also delays some large expenditures for the city. Closing it would cost $6.5 million, then $600,000 annually for maintenance.

Participation study/waste audit of Barrie curbside collection (June/July 2013)
* 27% participation in organics program
* 72% participation in blue box program
* 77% participation in grey box program
* 40% of material in garbage is organics
* 4.4% of material in garbage is diapers
Source: City of Barrie