Flaws with the Multi-Material BC (MMBC) recycling program are prompting Powell River Regional District to take action.
During its committee of the whole meeting, recently, directors heard a three-month report on MMBC, pointing out some of the problems that have arisen since the establishment of the recycling program.
Mike Wall, the regional district’s manager of community services, said the report had been prepared in anticipation of the Union of BC Municipalities for the directors to present at the convention.
The report generated a recommendation that the committee of the whole recommend to the regional board that it approve a request for a proposals process, to hire a professional recycler at the best value, to include the institution, commercial and industrial (ICI) sector into the regional recycling stream.
Wall has spoken with colleagues from other regional districts about how they deal with the ICI recyclables. Mount Waddington is taking care of it on its own, he said. It is not going through Green by Nature (GBN), the company that has sub-contracted with MMBC to process and market the recyclables. Wall believes the Cowichan Valley is going through Green by Nature.
“Our thought was to put out a request for proposals (RFP) to the local recyclers and see what they say,” Wall said. “We know what Green by Nature will charge us. They want to charge us between $270 and $408 per tonne, depending on where the depots are located. Maybe we can find a local solution with local employment to have it done cheaper.”
ICI recyclables account for 25 per cent of the total recycling material for the district.
Abby McLennan, from the regional district’s Let’s Talk Trash team, said businesses, schools, institutions such as churches and even the regional district office are not allowed to access the recycling system currently in use.
“That’s considered ICI and the way the system is set up now, the regional district says no ICI material will enter into the recycling collection,” she said.
Inger-Lise Burns, also from Let’s Talk Trash, said a number of events and festivals in Powell River have generated a significant amount of recyclables, and again, the current program cannot accommodate them.
Wall said if an individual purchased a recyclable item at a grocery store and put it into collection after consumption, it would be recyclable, but the same item purchased at Sea Fair would not be.
Augusta Recyclers Inc. is bound by the same set of rules and won’t take anything outside the scope of MMBC, other than metal, added McLennan.
Dave Murphy, Electoral Area D director, said the matter of a local recycler taking the ICI materials opens up another question. He said it might be prepared to accept items that are currently not allowed by MMBC. “Maybe we can fill another hole in the program.”
Colin Palmer, regional district chair and Electoral Area C director, said beyond sending out an RFP, he’d like to think the report is going to the minister of environment.
“We’ve asked for a meeting at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention,” Palmer said. “If we get this to the minister in advance, it might trigger her agreeing to meet us, because there’s a lot of valuable information here.”
He said he’d like to find out from the minister not only answers to the regional district’s information, but also, how the contracting of recyclables was passed from MMBC to Green by Nature.
“That really caused problems for me because I thought we were dealing with MMBC,” he said. “Is MMBC really living up to the original expectations of the province?”
Another problem might be in the wording of the contract. Palmer said he had been discussing the issue with Al Radke, the regional district’s chief administrative officer. Radke said the province had put the word “residential” into the requirements for MMBC instead of the word “customers.”
Palmer said the regional district has ended up with expenses that were never expected to be part of the program, but as the report says, the rules changed.
Maggie Hathaway, city director, said it is a sad reflection when people are trying to smuggle their recycling into the recycling stream.
“I think by getting a proposal on how much it might cost us to take care of it, it will bring us one step closer to the discussion we had at our last meeting about creating our own project here in Powell River,” Hathaway said. “I think we need to move ahead and do it on our own because the provincial government is not providing anything that works.”
The regional board voted to put out an RFP for ICI, and also carried a motion to forward the three-month report to Mary Polak, minister of environment, in anticipation of a meeting with her at the UBCM.
