City to develop bi-weekly Solid Waste Management Plan

Prince George could be moving to having garbage picked up every two weeks in the future.

During the budget deliberations back in January, Prince George City Council asked city administration to come back with a report on options and impacts of switching from the current weekly curbside solid waste collection to a bi-weekly schedule.

The report came back at last night’s (Monday) council meeting.

Director of Civic Operations Blake McIntosh noted the switch to a bi-weekly curbside pick up would require a significant capital investment and site expansion at the Foothills landfill site.

Administration came back with a pair of recommendations:

• That Council approves administration to procure professional services to develop a Solid Waste Management Plan specific to the City of Prince George,
• That Council directs administration to coordinate a presentation by Regional District of Fraser-Fort George staff to Mayor and Council to further expand on requirements for diverting recyclables/compostables.

“I think we need to be able adapt and change, and seeing the options available to us as we go through this process is going to be what helps us do that,” said Councillor Kyle Sampson.

“Making off the cup the decisions won’t be valuable to council to say we’re going to a bi-weekly unless we have a plan in place.”

The plan would create a waste reduction roadmap with specific target initiatives;

• Identifying targeted deliverables, producing communication plans for waste reduction and illegal dumping, education about recycling and other waste diversion strategies.
• Identifying community based social marketing programs to establish community support for the division’s initiatives.
• Pursue grants to assist with solid waste/management initiatives and/or technologies to support the division.
• Develop business cases for both the implementation of a seasonal yard and garden waste collection system, as well as taking over the collection of curbside recyclables.
• Conduct waste composition studies of municipal solid waste and recommend material bans and bylaw changes.

Council approved both recommendations.