Black carts hitting the streets

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Following discussions and clarifications to the proposed Waste Management Bylaw, Strathmore’s town council adopted the legislation – the fifth step in a 10-step process to move the municipality forward with an automated curbside waste and organics collection service that is being rolled out in the new year.
The previous council had lengthy deliberations regarding the process and concept prior to the Oct. 16 municipal election. During the regular town council meeting on Dec. 6, council approved staff recommendations of the conversion from a manual bag-based collection system to one that’s a fully automatic cart-based system by accepting the bylaw.
Since then, town staff has been busy assembling the units and delivering the carts to residences for use beginning Jan. 1, 2018. The organics materials green carts are expected to hit the streets in spring of next year.
“The objective of the bylaw is really to sort of match current town practices, which have diverged somewhat from the existing bylaw, to accommodate the new waste management contract and to sort of better position the town in enforcement and new initiatives,” said Ryan Roycroft, assistant director of infrastructure and developmental services for the Town of Strathmore.
“It’s been a long process and there’s a lot to go through, but the previous council and this council really have taken on a big challenge with this and the hope is that the results will really pay off. The key elements of the bylaw were to create a regulatory framework necessary for the automated cart system to really clarify the bylaw. It was a bit of an old Frankenstein under the old bylaw. It had various parts grafted onto it.”
Roycroft added that the new bylaw provides consistency in terminology and definitions to aid with the enforcement of the regulation. Its purpose is to regulate, manage the storage, control, handle, collect and dispose of waste, organic and recyclable materials, to provide terms and conditions, rates and charges for the collection services, and to operate as a public utility.
The automated collection consists of garbage, recycling materials and organic being stored in standard carts and collected by trucks equipped with a mechanical arm to empty the contents of the carts in the trucks.
Councillor Bob Sobol was concerned regarding the assembly of the carts and enough manpower to carry the task out by Jan. 1.
Councillor Jason Montgomery also questioned some of the language in the bylaw, especially in regard to prohibited materials. Staff clarified and corrected the wording to state that sawdust and powdered materials are required to be double bagged and ashes are allowed to be disposed in the carts. Montgomery further discussed the possibility of disposing of renovation materials – stating the bylaw was too vague and should be more specific about which renovation materials. However, staff was adamant about the intent of the service.
“If someone is filling it to the top with reno and then putting bags beside it, and they have bags of renovation materials and pay the $3 for bag tag, that’s not the intent of the service,” said Mark Ruault, director of Infrastructure and developmental services for the Town of Strathmore. “So we’re just trying to give our contractor some ability to say, ‘wait a minute, this is not domestic residential waste.’ That’s what we’re trying to get at.”
According to staff, the bylaw reaffirms the town’s commitment for waste reduction opportunities, to develop public support for programs and policies geared to provide direction in the development, as well as the implementation and the enforcement of the programs.
The current Waste Collection Services Bylaw #04-14 originated in April 2014. With the new rewrite, staff aimed to better highlight the intent of the new service.
Now that council has approved the bylaw, communications will begin with a green cart communications plan, green cart size procurement and delivery to all single residential units.
Yet not all council members were convinced the service will be operational on the first day of 2018.
“During our pre-2017 election conversations around this lengthy and weighty item, there were extensive discussions on whether there was time to carry out this very ambitious timeline,” said Councillor Denise Peterson. “I hear everybody talking about Jan. 1. I’m just wondering because it looks like we’re pushed and I guess it is my opinion that this community would not be averse if extra time were required. I don’t see that as being an issue.”
Council approved the Waste Management Bylaw during the regular council meeting on Dec. 6. For more information on storage, collection placement of cart, collection times, winter weather collections and lost or damaged carts, visit Strathmore.ca.