City hall irons out trash plan

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This article was published 18/02/2010 (5948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The latest round of garbage, recycling and compost votes at city hall has left politicians of all ideological stripes calling for a waste-management plan that will at least attempt to be consistent across Winnipeg.

On Wednesday, after city council’s executive policy committee considered tweaks to waste-collection policy for almost four hours, Mayor Sam Katz pledged an end to the confusion that has characterized almost six months of trash talk at city hall.

"This is probably one of the most sensitive issues of all time," the mayor told reporters after EPC reversed a public-works committee decision about supersized garbage carts, approved a new citywide recycling contract and agreed to pick up yard waste twice a year in northwest Winnipeg as a temporary measure before the city figures out how to deal with organic waste.

Since September, when the water and waste department first revealed plans to replace garbage cans in northwest Winnipeg with 240-litre rolling carts, city hall has been embroiled in a garbage mess.

As city waste managers try to juggle the short-term need to tender new waste-collection contracts with long-term concerns about waste-minimization, councillors and 311 operators have been forced to contend with residents who are angry, confused or even defiant about proposed changes.

At first, only council’s left-leaning opposition complained the city had no long-term waste-reduction plan and chided the council majority for rushing to approve new garbage carts for northwest Winnipeg.

But on Wednesday, North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty, a council conservative, called the northwest Winnipeg garbage carts a mistake, given the addition of a $232,000-a-year yard-waste pickup program and the as-yet-unknown cost of picking up new garbage carts from both sides of back lanes. He said he would oppose any contract that would see new areas of the city serviced by the carts.

Public works chairman Bill Clement (Charleswood), fearing more confusion in the future, voted against his own committee’s endorsement of a new recycling contract that will see rolling bins replace blue boxes across the city.

Coun. Justin Swandel (St. Norbert), another EPC member, said the city must stop trying to fine-tune waste-collection strategies just to placate "a few bitter and angry people" who don’t like change.

And opposition Coun. Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge) repeated her assertion Winnipeg is making a series of ad-hoc decisions that do not amount to a coherent waste-collection strategy.

"We’re reacting in dribs and drabs, one contract after another," she said.

On Wednesday, Katz joined the council consensus by conceding the new procedures in place in northwest Winnipeg "snuck up" on city council.

The mayor said the confusion is now over and promised Winnipeg will develop a single plan for garbage, recycling and organic-waste collection.

"What we’re trying to do is make sure that everybody is encouraged as much as possible to (generate) less waste and recycle as much as possible," he said, noting there was nothing to prevent Winnipeggers from generating as much waste as they liked until northwest Winnipeg received garbage carts earlier this month.

"We have a lot of work to do in organics and recycling, but I think we’re moving in the right direction," he said.

All the measures approved by EPC on Wednesday head to council as a whole for a vote on Feb. 24. But most members of council now appear to be on the same or at least a similar page.

"It’s obvious to me, we need changes," the mayor said.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

The latest word on waste

 

Proposed changes for Winnipeg garbage, recycling and yard-waste collection, as of Wednesday:

Supersized garbage carts

On Wednesday, council’s executive policy committee voted unanimously to allow residents of northwest Winnipeg — the only part of the city to be serviced by 240-litre garbage carts — to pay annual fees of $33 to swap their carts for 360-litre carts, $93 to obtain a second 240-litre cart or $113 to have two 360-litre carts.

Mayor Sam Katz, who previously indicated he’d rather see the city levy a one-time charge, agreed with city waste managers who say the cash is required to recover the cost of collecting the extra waste.

New recycling contract

EPC voted 5-1 to approve a new citywide recycling contract that will see 60-litre blue boxes replaced by 240-litre rolling blue bins in September. National Waste Services will receive about $35 million over the course of the 7.5-year contract.

Charleswood Coun. Bill Clement voted against the plan because he believes it may not offer the city the flexibility it needs to develop a more comprehensive waste-reduction strategy.

 

 

Northwest yard waste

EPC agreed unanimously to spend $232,000 a year on a spring-and-fall yard-waste program in northwest Winnipeg, which is served by the new rolling carts. Residents will be required to collect leaves in special compostable bags.

City waste managers say this will not preclude the possibility of creating a citywide organic-waste pickup program in the future.

 

 

 

 

No more crossing lanes

On Feb. 9, the public works committee gave city waste managers permission to negotiate a change in the northwest Winnipeg garbage-collection contract to allow bins to be collected on both sides of back lanes. The cost of this change has yet to be determined.