Yard-waste pickup pondered

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Darryl Drohomerski, the city's solid waste manager, compares proposed bins with current blue box. alor the City of Winnipeg, with the two new proposed bins and the traditional blue box. 09-11-17 (TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Curbside compost pickup is still too pricey for Winnipeg, city waste managers concluded after pondering how to deal with yard waste at homes where garbage cans have been replaced by rolling carts.

City council's public works committee is being asked to approve a plan in which yard waste would be collected in the city's northwest quadrant for four weeks every spring and fall, using special compostable bags. Homeowners in this area would be asked to compost, grass-cycle or haul their yard waste away during the rest of the summer season.

The move comes in response to concerns by homeowners with large yards, who fear they won't have any means of disposing of leaves and grass clippings now that garbage is being collected in a single, 240-litre cart in this corner of the city.

After being asked how the city will deal with yard waste once all Winnipeg homes are served by the rolling carts, the water and waste department looked at several options. They include spring-and-fall yard waste collection, May-to-November yard waste collection and year-round collection of organics, including kitchen scraps, in dedicated carts.

In a report to council, solid waste manager Darryl Drohomerski writes that year-round organic waste collection would cost $5 million a year, plus an additional $5 million in one-time spending on new equipment.

The collection of yard waste in the spring and fall would cost only $1 million for the entire city -- and $232,000 for northwest Winnipeg this year. The May-to-November yard waste option would cost $2.2 million a year for the entire city.

A fourth option that would involve the city simply asking homeowners to haul bags of leaves to depots was deemed unfair, as some households do not have vehicles large enough.

The cost of any new organic waste program could be offset by new provincial waste-reduction funding or carbon dioxide-reduction credits, but exactly how much is uncertain, Drohomerski writes.

Other Canadian cities, including Halifax, Toronto and Ottawa, collect all forms of organic waste throughout the year. But Vancouver and Kingston, Ont., offer spring and fall yard waste collection.

Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt, who co-chairs Mayor Sam Katz's environmental advisory committee, said he would prefer to see a full-blown organic-waste collection program.

"We wanted to see curbside organics pickup, not just once in awhile, but always. We're not reinventing the wheel here. It's been done in other cities, where they have a green bin for organics, black bin for garbage and blue bin for recyclables."

In a separate report authored by Drohomerski, the city is going ahead with plans to replace the manual collection of recyclables in blue boxes with automated collection using rolling 240-litre carts.

The city's existing recycling contract expires in September. In late 2009, the city held open houses and conducted surveys to gauge public opinion about recycling and found most residences had two or more blue boxes.

The public works committee will be asked to approve a 7.5-year, $35-million contract for National Waste Services, which presented the lowest bid -- $4.67 million a year -- for automated weekly collection.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

No to compost, yes to bigger blue bins

On Tuesday, city council's public works committee will consider plans to deal with two kinds of waste:

Organic waste

The problem: How should the city deal with organic waste, including kitchen scraps, leaves and grass cuttings, now that garbage cans are being replaced with rolling 240-litre carts?

What the city did: Solid-waste experts examined four means of collecting organic waste: asking residents to haul yard waste to Leaf It With Us depots; collecting yard waste in special compostable bags every spring and fall; collecting yard waste in special bags from May to November; or collecting all forms of organic waste, including kitchen scraps, all year using special carts.

What officials recommend: Spring-and-fall collection of yard waste, starting in northwest Winnipeg, where residents already have the automated garbage carts.

Why? It will cost only $232,000 to collect yard waste for four weeks each spring and fall in Winnipeg's northwestern quadrant, and $1.04 million to do this across the city. May-to-November collection would cost $2.2 million across the city, and year-round compost pickup would cost $5 million, plus another $5 million for equipment.

Recyclables

The question: How should the city collect recyclables from 185,000 city homes this September, when the city's blue-box contract expires?

What the city did: Last fall, the water and waste department conducted phone and web surveys about recycling preferences. At the same time, it asked recycling contractors to prepare bids on three types of collection: weekly manual collection using regular blue boxes; weekly collection using automated, 240-litre carts; and biweekly collection using 240- or 360-litre carts.

What officials recommend: Weekly collection using 240 litre carts.

Why? Based on three surveys, the city found most households have two or more blue boxes and would like something bigger, including a lid to prevent papers and plastic from blowing away. But Winnipeggers still need weekly collection to resist the urge to throw away recyclables.

Who got the contract? National Waste Services put in the low bid for the weekly collection option and stands to receive a $35-million, 7.5-year contract, pending council approval.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 6, 2010 B1