When blue recycle bags are phased out as of July 1, Nelson residents will use a blue plastic bin instead, provided by the city.
The city will purchase about 4,000 bins at a cost of approximately $70 each, for a total of about $280,000. The maximum size of the bins will be 32 gallons or 121 litres.
City hall is required to buy the bins under its contract with RecycleBC, the agency that pays the city for picking up paper and packaging waste at curbside.
This cost of the bins will be recovered from two sources:
• $140,000 from RecycleBC revenues. This is approximately the amount of the agency’s annual payment to the city. This revenue has previously gone into the city’s general revenue.
• $140,000 from a $35 increase in the flat fee charged to each single family dwelling on their tax bill for garbage collection. This would be the first increase in this fee in 13 years, this time from $40 to $75. This supersedes a decision in December in which council raised the fee by $5 for 2020.
Also the cost of garbage tags will go up from $1.50 to $1.75.
The Regional District of Central Kootenay, which disposes of non-recycling waste for Nelson, is increasing tipping fees at the landfill site by 10 per cent to $100 per ton. The garbage tag increase will pay for the city’s portion of this.
Council approved all of these changes at its Jan. 27 meeting.
The city is also in the process of buying a new garbage truck — one that will handle garbage and recycling at the same time, as the current truck does — and is considering increasing the garbage truck staff from two to three people for efficiency.
Related:
• Nelson: Goodbye blue bags, hello new garbage truck
• Blue recycling bags to be phased out
• Nelson’s garbage and recycling fees unchanged for 2019
bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com
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