City renews mattress recycling program despite stain of illegal dumping

When quantifying the merits of its mattress recycling program, the City of North Bay cites some impressive supporting numbers.

Since May 2017, following North Bay City Council's move to update the waste management by-law to include the diversion of mattresses and box springs through a recycling program, until Dec. 31, 2021, the City reports 19,943 mattresses have been kept out of the finite space available at the Merrick Landfill.

Critics point to the illegal dumping of mattresses in the community as a sign the program is failing, although the case can be made — as it was when the January reduction in the total number of garbage receptacles permitted at the curb without the purchase of garbage tags came into effect — such practices are by-law issues and, more precisely, societal issues. The sad reality is that some community people will illegally dump garbage, refuse, and household items regardless of the by-laws.

See related: A 'hefty' fee increase as garbage bag tags officially double in price

Does the $17 fee per mattress at the landfill plus the price of fuel and transportation 26 kilometres up the north highway from downtown make legal disposal accessible to every community member? Certainly not. In 2018, the City hosted a mattress drop-off day and budgeted for and plans to hold another sometime this year. The recycling fee still applies but transportation is covered.

The City supports the mattress recycling program and believes it should continue for the greater good in a bid to preserve and extend the life of what it considers to be one of the municipality's most valuable resources. According to the associated staff report, it's a matter of space. Mattresses take up too much room when disposed of and their diversion extends the life of the landfill. 

See related: Mattress recycling program bringing in the beds

As such, at its most recent regular meeting, Council renewed the program by awarding a three-year contract to Recyc-Mattress Inc., for mattress transportation, processing and recycling services. The City holds an option to extend the agreement for two additional one-year terms. The company's approved $360,400 bid was the sole one received. It represents a total cost over the initial three-year term based on the estimated quantities specified in the RFQ. Under the terms of the contract, the City will pay the unit rate per mattress and is not bound to any specific quantities.

Coun. Chris Mayne, the chair of the infrastructure and operations committee that oversees the landfill and mattress recycling acknowledged the program is optional but Council is committed to it. "The cost is about $120,000 per year for transportation and we do receive some revenue back from the sale of the materials."

However, the user fee structure will need to be examined come budget time, added Mayne. "Right now, we're collecting about $17 per mattress and the cost is about $20. While we don't want to make any money from the collection of recycled materials, we don't want to lose money either. We may have to adjust our collection fees in the fall."

Mattress recycling comes with the accompanying user fee and a further burden on the taxpayer due to the use of City of North Bay resources to investigate and clean up the mess left by illegal dumping.

According to Communications Officer Gord Young, when a mattress is illegally dumped on municipal property, by-law enforcement tries to determine where the mattress came from and have the owner remove it and/or face a fine. If by-law enforcement is unable to determine where the mattress came from, it is removed by Public Works. By-law enforcement also works with owners when illegal dumping occurs on private property. City crews clean up litter and illegal dumping on municipal property as part of their regular duties but do not record the number of illegally dumped mattresses or their locations.  

There is also the possibility of third-party dumping. Some community members with good intentions to recycle mattresses or dispose of other goods could be paying for hired dump runs that never reach their destination at the landfill.

"By-law enforcement has advised that instances of mattresses and other materials dumped at dead ends have greatly declined in recent years and that most cases of illegal dumping of mattresses involve individuals who have obtained a newer mattress and have disposed of an older mattress onto the curb a short distance from where they reside," says Young. 

By-law enforcement is tasked with covering a large area but staff believes the widespread use of smartphones has likely played a role in the decline in illegal dumping with photos of people dumping becoming a common means of reporting.

It's difficult to gauge how many mattresses are not making it to the landfill for recycling. Whether transported by community members or Public Works crews, officials say those 20,000 mattresses recycled represent a static annual rate of discarded mattresses diverted.

"The City did not collect mattress data prior to 2017 and is unable to provide exact numbers of mattresses received at the landfill," before the program's inception, advises Young. "Landfill staff, however, have noted that the volume of mattresses before 2017 was relatively similar at approximately 5,000 per year."