City staff want Winnipeggers to pay now, compost much later

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This article was published 01/09/2023 (739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg may not roll out a curbside compost collection program until 2030, despite originally planning to add the service in 2017.

If a new staff proposal is approved, each single-family household could start paying for the pickups next year, six years before collection is slated to begin. In 2024, each single-family home would be charged an annual fee of $8. And the waste-diversion fee would jump a total of $96 higher in 2030, adding to the existing $69.46 annual charge.

The current plan, however, may not win council approval.

“I’d like to see the timelines reduced and the costs reduced on bringing in a compost project. If we could do it sooner and for less money, that really, I think, would be the goal,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham.

Gillingham said the majority of Winnipeggers support curbside compost collection and Winnipeg is one of few large cities that doesn’t offer it.

The mayor said he hopes the provincial and federal governments will help pay for the service, since it would reduce landfill waste and greenhouse-gas emissions, a goal all three levels of government share.

A city report suggests the $8 per year increase to the annual waste diversion fee would start in 2024, to save money for green carts and kitchen pails.

Coun. Brian Mayes, chairman of the water and waste committee, said the idea of adding that charge six years before citywide collection starts may not survive the council process.

“We don’t need the carts right away, so I think there’d be great trepidation about that fee. But let’s get going (on the compost collection),” said Mayes (St. Vital).

The report calls for council to approve $500,000 for a consultant to develop a service contract to process green cart materials.

It also notes city staff will seek external funding to support the program, which could alter the proposed fees.

And staff expect to “seek opportunities to accelerate implementation of the full green cart program,” the report says.

Mayes said he expects the funding for the program to trigger plenty of debate among councillors, with some preferring the service be covered through property tax revenue instead of fees.

He said the $96 annual charge is equivalent to a roughly five per cent tax increase, while stressing there is public support for the service.

“That’s a significant amount of money but I think the public wants us to do this,” said Mayes.

He also hopes the city can deliver the service earlier than the report recommends.

“I’m troubled by the idea that we won’t get to the curb until 2030,” he said.

A weekly compost collection pilot project ran from October 2020 to September 2022 and included about 4,000 Winnipeg households. The city says 94 per cent of pilot project participants supported citywide collection during public engagement, while 66 per cent said they were willing to pay a new fee for the service.

The current proposal calls for each single-family residence to receive a 120-litre green cart and a seven-litre kitchen pail to support weekly compost collection. The program would accept fruits, vegetables, meat, bones and dairy, as well as paper towels, tissues and soiled cardboard boxes.

The plan calls for the city to seek a company to provide a privately owned processing facility for the material.

The report suggests participation in the composting pilot project was not always high, with an average of about 30 per cent of green carts set out on a weekly basis, compared with about 80 per cent of garbage carts and 70 per cent of recycling carts.

However, Mayes said staff told councillors about two-thirds of test homes did use the service, but not necessarily every week.

Delays in adding citywide compost collection have been blamed as a key reason why the city has yet to meet its goal to divert 50 per cent of household waste from the landfill.

In an email, water and waste spokesperson Lisa Marquardson said the expected 2030 start date for citywide service is based on an estimate it will take seven years to complete contracts, raise funds and get a processing facility built to support the project.

The city expects carts and kitchen pails will cost $16.9 million. Starting in 2030, annual operating costs would include processing ($3.5 million), curbside collection ($15.4 million), organics diversion staff ($3.2 million) and capital borrowing costs ($20,000), based on the current proposal.

The plan would require full city council approval.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga