COCHRANE— The Town’s Blue Cart Audit is now underway and auditors are busy examining the contents of residential recycling bins around town.
Because the project began at the end of September, it is a little too early for the Town to have any preliminary data, but the Town’s manager of waste and recycling, Fabrizio Bertolo said he has seen a few interesting things.
“At the end, we’ll have all the data and be able to round some statistics and see what some of the common contamination is in the blue bins, and that’s going to help us out in tailoring some education campaigns in the future.”
The Town’s contract with the recycling processor is up for renewal, and the Town will soon see an increase in penalties levied for contaminated loads.
Annually, the increase in fees could translate to an increase of $100,000 in fees for the Town, which has the potential to translate to higher fees for taxpayers.
Bertolo said that the new fees are the reason why the Town needs to conduct an educational campaign.
“The Recycling market has been hit hard over the last couple of years, because of the reduced value in the commodities,” he said. “We’re moving into a contract next year and so far we’re able to hold onto the old contract and the old fees we’ve been paying.”
Bertolo said contaminants found commonly in recycling bins ruin the value of the materials produced at recycling facilities.
“The material needs to be really clean to be marketed and there is no value in that material, so the recycling facilities are really picky about that, and they need to be strict with the municipalities.”
There has obviously been an uptick in mask and glove waste, neither of which is recyclable, and some of that waste has found its way into recycling bins.
Bertolo said that he wants to see a more complete picture of the situation before deciding whether or not those items will require attention from the Town.
“I have seen a couple, for sure,” he said. “I didn’t see a lot of them, so those are probably just honest mistakes from residents when they throw one in, but I want to wait until the end of the audit to see what’s the extent of this problem before running a specific campaign.”
Since the start of COVID-19, residential waste has gone up significantly in all three streams— Garbage, organics and recycling.
“They all went up around 20 per cent,” he said. “And it does make sense, because if you consider the opposite side, commercial waste, has gone down.
“It’s an increased strain, but we can still handle it,” he said. “We didn’t need to add more and more trucks. It’s definitely a lot more weight in each truck, but it’s manageable.”
If contaminants are found in your bin, you might notice a tag on your cart noting what has been found.
The goal of the campaign is not punitive, Bertolo said, but purely educational. The Town does not plan on handing out any fines or punishment if they find contaminants in a blue bin.
“This is absolutely not the goal of the campaign, it’s just an educational campaign. We want to be able to provide information to the residents about what goes and what doesn’t go in the blue bins, and this is the best way we have— Going cart by cart and providing specific information.”
Bertolo said that the Blue Cart Audit should wrap up in early December if the weather cooperates, and the Town should have a more complete picture on which items are the most common.
