Residents living in 19 Cariboo Regional District areas are going to be asked if they would like to have curbside pickup of garbage and recycling.
Tera Grady, manager of solid waste for the CRD, said residents will receive a mail-out about the proposal in early May.
“We have a fair number of homes already purchasing private garbage collection,” Grady said, adding with economies of scale, everyone would be sharing the cost so the cost per home should be less.
For between $9 and $14 a month, residents would get garbage pickup once a week and recycling pickup every second week.
There are 7,000 homes in the 19 areas which include Barlow Creek/Ten Mile Lake, River Park Road/Hilborn Road/Quesnel-Hixon Road, Bouchie Lake/Bouchie Creek/Pinnacles Park, West Fraser Road, Red Bluff, Pine Valley, Commodore Crescent, Fox Mountain, North Lakeside/Lexington, South Lakeside, Esler, Dog Creek, Flett Subdivision, 103 Mile, 105 Mile, Buffalo/Gateway, Ranchettes/Horse Lake/Lone Butte and 93 Mile.
108 Mile already receives curbside pickup.
Residents in those 19 areas will be asked to fill out a survey and each area will get its own survey.
If the majority of residents in one area want the service then it would be put in place.
If the majority don’t then that area would not receive the service.
Grady said the mail-out going out early May will have information about how to access the survey.
Residents who are not using the internet will be able to call the regional district to do the survey over the phone, pick up a hard copy or have it mailed to them.
There will also be a solid waste management plan update survey for residents, as well as open houses both in-person and by zoom beginning the middle of May.
The surveys will be open until the end of May.
Recycling
“Recycling isn’t to be taken lightly,” Grady said.
Loads are audited and if there is more than three per cent of non-packaging or paper products, the CRD could be fined.
Things like hardcover books, frying pans, rubber boots, clothing and scrap metal are all considered contaminants.
Glass, although it is used for packaging, has to be taken directly to a recycling depot and cannot be added to curbside pickup.
“We haven’t been fined yet,” she said, noting the audits of recycling collected initially at 108 Mile showed 20 per cent contamination, but through education with the public that has been brought down to six per cent contamination.
She said the CRD follows up every year by doing curbside audits and provides feedback to residents.
Share sheds
The Frizzi Road share shed will not be coming back because it was not manageable, Grady said, noting “the logistics and liability around that site were not feasible.”
One of the solid waste management plan update survey questions will ask residents it they would like to see a diversion or reuse centre in Williams Lake, which Grady said encompasses all the wonderful things about a share shed.
The difference is that the diversion centre would staffed and be inside a building where it could be locked up at night.
All the rural share sheds in the CRD remain open except in Wildwood, which is closed temporarily.
“We have had some safety concerns,” Grady said about the Wildwood share shed.
“We are going to do some outreach with the community to see what kind of support we can provide to the staff at the site to improve the situation.”
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monica.lamb-yorski@wltribune.com
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