Leafs household hazardous waste depot gets go-ahead boost from regional district
By Timothy Schafer
The region will be getting a new household hazardous waste drop-off depot and it won’t be operational only once or twice a year.
The Regional District of Central Kootenay board of directors has approved a three-year service agreement with the Nelson Leafs Hockey Society for the operation of a hazardous waste drop-off depot.
The board’s decision was predicated by environmental considerations.
“Illegal dumping of the materials proposed for collection is an ongoing concern given the low level of service for their disposal in the RDCK,” said resource recovery technician Travis Barrington in his report to the board. “Materials such as motor oil can have widespread environmental impacts if not managed properly.”
A permanent facility was identified as being a valuable service to residents.
The depot will be funded in part from the regional district for up to $71,360 annually to be paid from the Central Resource Recovery Service, for a period of three years with the option to renew for two one-year periods.
Capital expenses for the establishment of the new depot were pegged at $39,050, with around $10,000 for “site improvements” to address concerns raised by the city over flooding.
The society has been able to obtain the necessary permits and approvals from the City of Nelson to make modifications to the depot and begin accepting household hazardous waste.
Container delivery is expected to arrive in August and the depot will launch following its household hazardous waste (HHW) Round Up event at the Leafs’ depot on Sept. 8.
“Pick up and transport of collected material for disposal will be carried out by the RDCK’s HHW event service provider under the guidelines of that agreement,” noted Barrington’s report to the board.
The material accepted by the depot through the regional district arrangement have been prohibited from disposal in landfills by the resource recovery facilities regulatory bylaw.
“Some of the materials are not designated in the recycling regulation as requiring product stewardship and no stewards or fulltime free depots exist for their disposal,” Barrington explained.
The society currently operates a recycling centre in Nelson that collects refundable beverage containers, end-of-life electronics and other items, and has a location in Nelson adjacent to Cottonwood Park.
Under the new agreement, the depot will now begin accepting used oil, antifreeze and other materials that can typically only be brought to the RDCK’s annual household hazardous waste (HHW) events.
The household hazardous waste deport will launch in September.
Collection services agreement: MMBC recycling
In addition to approving the new agreement for hazardous waste, the regional district board has moved ahead with a depot collection services agreement with Multi-Material B.C. Recycling Inc.
Doing business as Recycle BC, the company hosts and operates residential recycling depots.
However, regional district staff are expected to develop a separate industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) packaging and printed paper recycling services for old corrugated cardboard for the Nelson, Ootischenia, Creston, Crescent Valley, New Denver, Nakusp, Kaslo and Salmo depots.
In addition, regional district staff have been tasked with negotiating an extension to the agreement with Waste Management of Canada Corporation for the “collection, transportation and processing of co-mingled recyclable materials from the recycling depots in the RDCK to allow for the transition to the Recycle BC program with a minimum of service interruptions.”
In August 2018 the board agreed in principle to accept an offer from Recycle BC to establish and service 12 recycling depots in the regional district, including Nelson.
However, other recycling depots in the district will be maintained under the agreement as satellite depots serviced by an RDCK contractor and collecting the same materials as the core depots.
