New charges at CRC are a strategic choice
By Cecilia Nasmith
Associate Director of Public Works Adam McCue responded to criticism over the new county policy – effective April 1 – of charging at its Community Recycling Centre for leaf and yard waste at the rate of $75 per tonne (with a $7.50 minimum charge for loads weighing less than 100 kg.).
It's the better choice for the CRCs, McCue argued, as well as everyone's wallet and long-term health.
McCue's remarks came in response to a letter from Brenda Quinn objecting to the changes – a departure from accepting such loads up to 500 kg. free.
Quinn owns “a large property with several large gardens and two dozen deciduous trees,” making weekly trips of about eight tarploads of grass clippings and leaves, the equivalent of about 16 to 20 brown bags.
In the fall, she brings in “about 300 tarploads of leaves” or the equivalent of “about 1,000 brown bags full of rotten, smelly leaves that would accumulate at curbside for pickup.”
Quinn called the new fees “a short-sighted, costly change which is going to add greatly to the number of leaf bags accumulating for curbside collection, with the resultant potential for insects/diseases and rodent populations as a result of the rotting leaves/grass left curbside, not to mention the additional cost of the pickups in fuel, garbage trucks and labour.”
“One of the main reasons we are looking at increasing tipping fees is to really induce people to use curbside collection programs for curbside leaf and yard waste,” McCue said.
This component accounts for some of their busiest times at Community Recycling Centres throughout the county, particularly the one at Bewdley, and especially in the spring and fall.
“More than half the material that we collect comes from residents bringing that material,” McCue said.
Curbside collection is offered throughout the entire county, he added – even in the Municipality of Port Hope's Ward 2, which does not even get curbside garbage and recycling pick-up.
When residents opt to carry their own leaf and yard waste, it creates a significant traffic impact at CRCs, forcing staff to add traffic control to their current duties. While the quantity of materials received at CRCs is down slightly, trips into the CRCs are up by 40% - at least in part due to the strategic choice by people dumping leaf and yard waste in smaller loads to avoid charges. The tie-up on County Road 9 at the Bewdley site can be extreme at times.
Commenting on Quinn's use of the CRC, he estimated she produces 1,400 bags that she transports through 64 trips for a total of 3,300 km., requiring $500 worth of fuel.
Meanwhile, collecting her waste at curbside would be part of an existing contract that pays $1.25 per stop per month.
“We already pay to have it collected,” he pointed out.
To pick up Quinn's waste would cost $10 over the course of a year, as the service is offered monthly between April and December, vs. hundreds of dollars' expense to Quinn and all the extra greenhouse-gas emissions.