Residents may be holding onto their garbage a little longer in the future with a District of Squamish council decision to consider collecting garbage every other week. At Tuesday's (Sept. 6) meeting, council unanimously voted against staff's recommendation that garbage pick-up remain as a weekly service.Within the next two months, Squamish will be moving from its regular weekly garbage collection service to a bi-weekly service that will include recyclables except for glass, and bear-proof containers.Staff's recommendation occurred as a result of Carney Waste System's proposal on June 24 that Squamish move to curbside recycling.Carney's proposal had three phases, the second of which involved bi-weekly curbside recycling and bi-weekly garbage collection.Incorporated within Carney's proposal was a request to renew his contract with the district for a full five years and the promise to bear-proof garbage totes at a minimal cost to citizens over the next five years."Going to a bi-weekly service with the 246-litre totes would have the beneficial result of reducing the amount of garbage that each household would put into the landfill," said Gord Prescott, manager of operations.Currently the district operates three recycling depots, and has containers at the Landfill and Carney's Waste Systems yard. As outlined in a staff report, the neighbours adjacent to the depots have complained about noise, cleanliness and debris that blows off the site.In December 2007 council received a feasibility report on curbside recycling. The report stated that the amount of material recycled at the depot system was "well above the per household national average."The curbside garbage collection currently in place allows residents of Squamish to fill their 246-litre totes to full capacity, although the bylaw allows only a total of 154 litres per household per week. Within the next two months, Carney's will supply a new 246-litre tote to each household as part of the Automated Co-mingled Single Stream Recycling Curbside Cart biweekly pickup. Each household will then be in possession of two 246-litre totes, one to be used for waste and one to be used for recyclables - except for glass."[The totes] will have the beneficial result of reducing the amount of garbage from each household into the landfill," said Prescott. He also pointed out that having the two totes side by side will be more convenient for citizens, since sorting through recyclables will no longer be necessary - the exception being glass, which will be received at Carney's Queens Way facility.The new bi-weekly collection will extend the life of the landfill by 20 per cent, said Prescott.Staff noted concerns for the bi-weekly collection service from Bear Aware, who have reported incidents where bears in the corridor have broken into sheds and rummaged through garbage cans, especially when garbage was odorous. The recommendation was to proof garbage totes.The approximately 500 residents who already own bear-proofed totes will not have to pay for a new bear-proofed tote. The garbage totes will be bear-proofed when they are picked up. The cost for bear-proofing the tote will be $1.60 per household per month, over the course of the next five years.The third phase of Carney's proposal is to incorporate curbside pickup of organic waste, which would result in an increase in cost.Mayor Ian Sutherland was excited about the new collection system."This will get us one step closer to where we want to be as a community," he said, adding that he would "to see us get to the Phase 3, which is the organics, as quickly as we can".Coun. Patricia Heintzman wondered if it was better to wait on the bear-proofing until the organics totes were implemented."Isn't it wiser just to bear proof the organics and not to bear proof the garbage now and six months down the road provide an organics bin and bear proof that as well and have 2 bins that are bear proof?" she asked.Prescott responded by saying that he "doesn't have that much faith our garbage won't attract bears," adding that garbage will still include packaging that can be quite odorous.Coun. Greg Gardner said he believes "it's a good proposal at very little cost to the taxpayer," adding he has personal experience with the bear-proof totes, and they "work very well."Coun. Mike Jensen noted that if Squamish ever has to close its landfill and ship garbage, then reducing the amount in the landfill now will reduce a potential cost later on."I think [people] will recycle a lot more," he said.Council agreed that more information on Phase Three, the organics collection, is needed, including specific costs to the district and to residents, and asked staff to begin the process of outlining Phase Three to council.
