A fed up citizen claims he has contacted the City of North Bay many times this past year about the illegal dumping of mattresses and garbage in the same spot (see photo gallery) along Golf Club Road between Airport Road and OBrien Street, across from Union Cemetery.
Due to the repeated use of the same location, Ken Mantey tells BayToday he figures it is not random dumping but rather a case of a contractor being paid to take the mattresses to the landfill who instead dumps them on Golf Club Road and keeps the money.
He says the latest surreptitious backroad dumping came earlier this week.
"City taxpayers are then on the hook for the clean-up," says Mantey, acknowledging the City of North Bay crew arrived quickly when notified to dispose of the dumped materials.
"If in any way you can help stop this disgusting behaviour by getting this out to the public, it would be much appreciated," writes Mantey. "Maybe somebody will recognize their stuff and come forward with information on who was paid to take it away."
By-Law Enforcement Supervisor Ron Melnyk says he is "aware of the mattress dumping taking place in that area," noting he had "received a few calls this year," regarding the situation.
Melnyk confirms the fine for this sort of illegal dumping is $365. "Mattresses are always a tough issue as they can't be tracked to an owner unless someone sees it being dumped. The City can't monitor that area with cameras but any civilian can and if they share the video with us, we can prosecute."
Illegal dumping uses resources to investigate and clean up the mess left behind. When a mattress is illegally dumped on municipal property, by-law enforcement tries to determine where it came from to 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.
See related: City renews mattress recycling program despite stain of illegal dumping
The mattress recycling program, while embraced as part of the City of North Bay's waste diversion strategy, has had its detractors over the years since its 2017 introduction. The fee to recycle a mattress or box spring has risen in recent years to $25 each, up from $17 in 2022. The cost recovery model offsets the price of shipping and processing. Then there is the issue of transportation 26 kilometres up the north highway to the Merrick Landfill.
See also: No dumping! Save a trip to the landfill for mattress recycling
To mitigate transportation challenges for residents, the City of North Bay has hosted one-day recycling drop-off events for the past two years so residents can dispose of used mattresses and box springs properly instead of in local creeks, alleyways or on dead-end roads.
Critics point to the illegal dumping of mattresses in the community as a sign the program is failing, although the case can be made 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.
The previous council renewed the program in 2022 by awarding a three-year contract to Recyc-Mattress Inc., for mattress transportation, processing and recycling services. The City has the 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 pays the unit rate per mattress and is not bound to any specific quantities.
The Merrick Landfill ships out truckloads of mattresses and box springs for processing each year as part of the program, which has diverted more than 30,000 mattresses and box springs from the municipal landfill site since its inception, at a rate of about 5,000 per year.
