A Big Step Backward
By Michael Jessen
How much do I dislike the RDCK central subregion’s new recycling system? Let me count the ways.
Recycling requires a lot of public acceptance and cooperation so why did the RDCK make such drastic changes to its system with a minimal amount of communication.
Regional district spokesperson Mike Morrison has stated the RDCK had “a thorough communications plan and advertised it through various media.”
All I saw was one news release printed in the local media. The release mentioned the use of front-load bins but didn’t comment on the small opening sizes.
Even my own regional district director Ramona Faust admitted in an email to constituents that she was unaware of the small opening size.
Morrison has been quoted in local media as stating the public will just have to get used to the increased inconvenience.
That comment displays a total lack of respect for taxpayers. Shame on you!
Would it really have been too expensive to send a notice to each affected household explaining the new system, why it was being implemented, and its benefits? Come on, RDCK, you tell us you’re going to save $200,000 with this new system so why not spend a few dollars explaining it if it is so great.
Would convening a focus group to give feedback on the new system have been too difficult? What about the Solid Waste Management Plan – is this new system included in it? What about the SWMP public advisory committee? Was this group made aware of these changes? If so, did they approve them?
Who is happy with the new system?
Just because other parts of the RDCK have been using this front-load small opening system since 2011, does that mean it’s the best system available? And are the citizens of those parts of the RDCK happy with what they have?
We don’t know and it is likely the RDCK doesn’t know either as they remain our most secretive level of government with an office hidden away on Nelson’s Lakeside Drive that is not even accessible by bus.
The result of this bungled implementation of the new recycling system has been blue bags full of recyclables littering the dropoff depots in Nelson, Balfour, Salmo, Ymir, Lakeside, Grohman, Kokanee, Balfour, and Kaslo.
Morrison’s comment: it will abate once the public gets used to the new system. Suck it up folks. What a condescending attitude!
Now let’s deal with some of the supposed reasons for the new system.
The small slots are because the public is supposed to flatten its cardboard. Well, wait a minute. We’re told a big benefit of the new system is that it can compact material. Can’t it compact unflattened cardboard? And aren’t businesses the main source of cardboard; why punish residential customers?
Another reason: small openings so people don’t dump garbage in the bins. Well, I’m sorry but people were putting garbage in their blue bags before and I don’t recall an RDCK education campaign to discourage it.
Yet another reason: keep scavengers from removing refundable bottles and cans. Again I don’t recall an RDCK education campaign encouraging people to give their refundables to scavengers or take them to the Nelson Leafs Recycling Centre. The public should not be putting refundable containers in their recycling. There’s a reason why these containers are refundable and that’s to get them back into circulation or the remanufacturing process.
While the RDCK’s partnership with the Nelson Leafs to provide funds to the Kootenay Lake Hospital Foundation is admirable, this program would be way more successful with more publicity and educational efforts.
How successful is our recycling?
In fact, the RDCK gives us no information about how successful (or not) recycling is in the area. Are we creating more or less garbage? Just because the RDCK says it has a zero waste goal does not make the goal a fait accompli. It requires some considerable efforts on the part of all garbage makers, recyclers, and government.
Information is not forthcoming although the RDCK website does make this statement:
“The goal of resource recovery is to educate people to produce less waste and to encourage healthier environments. This can be achieved by following Zero Waste guidelines, think less waste! Reducing, Reusing, Recycling, Recovering and Returning refundable materials all make waste reduction a success.”
The provincial government’s website on waste management says “Canadians dispose of more municipal solid waste per capita than any other country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development according to a Conference Board of Canada report.”
Wouldn’t it be prudent for RDCK residents to know if they belonged to a group of recycling laggards or were more environmentally conscious than the majority of Canadians?
Both recycling and making garbage cost a lot of money.
At the July 16, 2015 RDCK board meeting, directors passed motion 427/15:
The tender for Closure of Central Landfill Cells 2 and 4 be awarded to Mackay Contracting in the amount of $1,866,877.22 plus applicable taxes.
And motion 428/15:
The proposal submitted by Waste Management of Canada for a three-year contract for the collection, transportation and processing of recyclable materials in all three Sub-regions, including OCC from the Lakeside Drive depot at an approximate three year total contract price of $2,253,050 (including GST) subject to annual cost adjustment, be accepted.
Does the RDCK issue news releases about these huge expenditures of tax dollars? Nope, you have to troll the website agendas or minutes to find out.
So now we know that we have contracted out recycling collection in the central subregion. Did this result in any RDCK employees, who used to transport the blue bag bins, being laid off?
Any due diligence when choosing a contractor?
Are we taxpayers being well-served by contracting with “a publicly-traded (NYSE:WM) for-profit waste management company headquartered in Houston, Texas” that “is the largest waste collection corporation in North America”?
The Center for Media and Democracy publishes SourceWatch to track corporations.
SourceWatch’s web page on Waste Management Inc.is not flattering to the company. Not only has the company been involved in a serious accounting fraud scandal over the years, but in 2014 when the company earned $14 billion in operating revenue, it paid president and chief executive officer David P. Steinera whopping $10.8 million in compensation.
How much due diligence does the RDCK do before they contract with a company? Are we supposed to believe that the Canadian subsidiary we contract with has higher ideals than its American parent that “lists climate change legislation as a potential threat to its operations and cash flow in its annual report”?
A final slap in the face for me – as a user of the Kokanee Park Marine recycling depot – was the location of the recycling bins. Moved from their original location on pavement, the bins were moved to a spot that turned into a mud hole in one spot and a bunch of puddles during last week’s rain.
The relocation was obviously done for the convenience of the trucks emptying the bins. The convenience of the recycling public be damned!
Finally, the debate has long ranged within recycling circles whether it’s better to collect sorted or unsorted recyclables. The unsorted side has mostly won out on the premise that more people will participate in such a program.
I have always been of the opinion that sorted is best since the object of recycling is to get material back into the remanufacturing stream as clean of contaminants as possible in order to fetch better prices.
We don’t know what is happening with RDCK’s recyclables – are they sold (and if so, does the RDCK get any share of the revenue?), or are they landfilled or burned in a waste to energy incinerator?
We aren’t told and we should be. But that would require communication, not the RDCK’s forte.
The new recycling system is not an example of “greening up” but rather “greening down.”
Some of my neighbours are threatening a petition to protest this new system.
Maybe that is what is needed to wake up an institution that has flubbed the waste management file for the past 15 years.
Michael Jessen is a Nelson-based eco-writer and consultant. His business Zero Waste Solutions assists companies, communities, and individuals to implement sustainable ideas and initiatives. He was recycling coordinator for the RDCK central subregion from 1990 to 1999.
