Niagara Regional Council approves every-other-week garbage collection to start in fall 2020

news and notes

From Niagara Region

Niagara Regional Council approved every-other-week garbage collection scenario effective fall 2020 at a Special Council Meeting on Oct. 17, 2019. The change will apply to garbage collection for all low-density residential properties (single home and properties with one to six units) and for those industrial, commercial and institutional and mixed-use properties located outside Designated Business Areas.

Niagara Region is currently in the middle of a request for proposal for curbside collection, haulage of garbage, recycling and organics process. The start date of the new contract is Monday, Oct. 19, 2020 and any changes in garbage collection for Niagara residents will take effect with the new contract. Recycling and organics collection will continue to be collected weekly.

Until that date, Niagara residents can continue to follow the current garbage and recycling collection process. Once every-other-week garbage collection comes into effect, current garbage container (bag/can) limits would double for affected sectors.

Among the benefits of every-other-week garbage collection outlined in the staff report are:

Increase waste diversion 

  • ​Niagara Region’s current waste diversion rate has levelled off at 56 per cent and the target diversion rate is 65 per cent
  • Niagara Region’s waste audit results show approximately 50 per cent of what residents put in their garbage is organic waste which should have been disposed of in the Green Bin
  • Shifting to every-other-week collection will encourage residents to put these organics in the Green Bin for weekly collection to avoid odours and reduce storage space demands

Extend Regional landfill capacity

  • If the volume of garbage decreases, this will preserve existing Regional disposal capacity and increase the life of the landfill
  • Landfills are costly to build and maintain. The recently constructed Cell Four (new landfill capacity) at Niagara Road 12 Landfill cost $3.75 million to build
  • Deferred capital costs for new disposal infrastructure. As a point of reference, the Humberstone Landfill site vertical expansion will have a total cost of approximately $10.5 million. The total cost to construct the Durham-York Energy from Waste facility was $295 million and in 2018, the facility received 140,780 tonnes of waste at a net operating cost of approximately $9.2 million.
  • Build necessary infrastructure, including pipes to capture leechate and ongoing maintenance of a landfill

Best practice

  • ​Approximately 70 per cent of Niagara Region’s municipal comparators, such as Barrie, Durham, Halton, Markham, Ottawa, Toronto, Vaughan, Peel and Waterloo, provide every-other-week garbage collection and their residents have adapted to this change
  • Diversion rates increased between 6 and 16 per cent for these municipal comparators with every-other-week garbage collection
  • Waterloo Region adopted every-other-week collection and the diversion rate went up from 52.5 to 65 per cent; one of the highest rates in the province
  • Niagara Region has made changes in the past to waste collection and residents to their credit have adapted
  • Niagara Region will support any changes made in waste collection with a communications plan to provide the community with the information they need

About the new waste collection contract

The new collection contract is split into two areas:

  • Collection Area One (Grimsby, Lincoln, Pelham, Thorold, Wainfleet and West Lincoln) and
  • Collection Area Two (Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Port Colborne, St. Catharines and Welland.)

With the Oct.17, 2019 approval from Regional Council of every-other-week garbage collection, Niagara Region staff will begin the next stage of the request for proposal process. The next stage is where short-listed proponents, such as those who met the minimum technical threshold, will have the opportunity to submit their best and final offer which must be must be less than or equal to their original proposed financial submission.

Proponents will be ranked on a combination of both the technical score and best and final offer pricing, and the successful proponents for collection area one and collection area two will be invited to enter a final round of negotiations with Niagara Region regarding the possibility of an earlier start date.

Staff is expecting to present a report to Niagara Regional Council on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019 naming the successful proponents who will become the new waste collection contractors.

Contact

Norman Miller
Niagara Region
905-980-6000 ext. 3215
norman.miller@niagararegion.ca