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The City of North Bay is lagging behind other major northern centres when it comes to waste diversion and a waste collection service level change discussed — but not adopted — during the last operating budget deliberations will soon be back on the agenda and addressed at the committee level of North Bay City Council.
If the service level change is ultimately approved in time for the desired launch date of Jan. 1, 2022, as outlined in the associated staff report from Karin Pratte, the City's senior environment and facilities engineer, the current "free three-bag limit," will drop to two and City garbage bag tags available for purchase at the Customer Service Centre on the main floor of City Hall will double in cost to $2 per tag.
The industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) sectors would see their limits drop from 12 to 10 receptacles under the proposed model.
Pratte said the City of North Bay "currently allows the most waste at the curb of any other large northern Ontario community." More than Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and Timmins without any user fees. "We have the largest volume allowed at the curb — for free. Going down to two free bags we would be comparable."
The program also calls for an increase to dispose of garbage above and beyond the new two-receptacle limit to $2 per bag, as opposed to the current $1. According to the City of North Bay's definition, one standard receptacle can include several bags of garbage:
"Extra bags/receptacles can have a maximum weight of 15 kilograms, or 35 pounds and receptacles cannot be larger than 150 litres, or 33 gallons. The City will collect three extra garbage bags/receptacles per household as long as they have a bag tag."
During last December's service level change discussions, Pratte told members, "This is not only environmentally-friendly, it's fiscally-friendly...The intention here isn't that we would sell thousands and thousands worth of bag tags. The intention is to have people think differently about what they put into the waste stream."
The topic has been revisited time and time again, as seen in this 2007 article from BayToday's archives: Council’s trash talk sends recommendation to the curb
Any waste diversion strategy brought forward has an overarching goal of protecting the life of the municipally-owned Merrick Landfill, consistently cited by the City as one of its most valuable yet finite assets. These programs are designed to divert waste from the landfill into recycling programs, with the aim of maintaining or extending the useful life of the landfill. In 2025, the cost of recycling will begin to be borne by the producers of the materials, not municipalities the size of North Bay, creating further savings.
Pratte noted then she would be happy if no tags were sold at all and recycling habits improved, as 30 to 40 per cent of the waste entering the landfill is from recyclable material. She added this program is intended for households putting out three receptacles and no recycling.
"This would not have a huge impact on your average user," said Pratte. "It would encourage users to recycle more."
From the report: "The increased annual cost to a household would be dependent on the number of waste receptacles put out each week. Currently, households put out approximately 1.5 receptacles per week. This means that most households would not require purchasing additional tags. There are, however, residents who will choose to put out more than 2 receptacles out of convenience."
A common concern surrounding the waste collection user fee discussion is the potential for (more) illegal dumping to circumvent the cost of bag tags and Coun. Mark King observed as much during the same meeting last fall.
See related story: Would you pay a buck a bag for extra garbage pickup?
See also: Banning collection of textiles another way to extend life of landfill
Although protection of the landfill and encouraging recycling are the goals of the waste diversion strategy, there is a financial component to the service level change. The report cites increasing waste collection costs as the reason for the doubling of the tag price from one to two dollars and advises, "If half of the residential households put out one additional bag 4 times per year the additional revenue would be $75,284. There are an estimated 1,000 ICI customers that are currently entitled to put out 12 bags per week for garbage pickup. Their new free bag allotment would be 10 bags per week. If half the ICI customers put out 12 bags 4 times per year the additional revenue would be $16,000. Therefore, a total increased revenue of $91,284."
A public education campaign outlining the waste collection changes would accompany its approval by Council and would begin in September, months before implementation.
