Lethbridge Committee for Government Affairs up-cycles the curbside issue

At the outset, it’s important to note that the group of dissenters are not against recycling, they agree its a good thing and more recycling needs to be done. They take issue with how the city proposed the mandatory curbside plan. They believe residents should have a choice to opt out and go with a private operator and they don’t want to see the private operations forced out of business by the city.

There are currently three private recyclers, who charge between $15 and $20 for monthly pickup. One of those businesses is run by Barry Sedgwick, who has been in the industry for 10 years and views the city as pushing him out of business.

Pereverseff’s involvement, along with the others who attended the meeting, stems from concern over increased taxes and fees. They believe there is no reason to initiate curbside recycling with the added fee (estimated at about $7 a month) that goes with it, when private recyclers are already providing the service and there is opportunity for residents to handle their own recycling by way of the existing recycling depots across the city, which have already been paid for by the taxpayers.

While there are residents who do take advantage of the private curbside recyclers or the recycling depots, the city contends there still isn’t a high enough ‘buy-in ‘ by residents, and far too many recyclables are still going to the landfill, which prompted the decision to institute mandatory curbside service.

The opposing view points have lead to a war of words between city officials and those opposing mandatory collection.

On Friday, January 20, Pereverseff and those representing the private recyclers met with city officials to express concerns about the small companies being pushed out of business.

Harold said when they asked directly what compensation would be given to the current businesses, they were told that they were simply being given two years notice to get their affairs in order or look at other alternatives. When pressed on the issue of compensation for companies that would be out of work, Pereverseff stated the mayor offered the following comment:

“What did Block Buster get?”

Pereverseff says he reminded the Mayor that they were not talking about Block Buster – they were talking about the City of Lethbridge and three businesses that were going to be put out of business. He questioned the city’s move.

“The mayor and councillors have always stated their priority is to have independent contractors and businesses and promoting small businesses in the community but, on this hand, they’re just telling them to go away and that is just not right.”

Pereverseff went on to note that the City of Vancouver has curbside recycling but it also has private contractors, based on a court case that challenged that city back in 2002. The court told the City of Vancouver that existing contracts had to be offered to the companies that were previously operating curbside recycling businesses.

Harold hoped that the meeting would prove to the city that there was concern amongst residents. He said they don’t want to be confrontational or obstructive but, they wanted to have their voices heard. He noted the upcoming election in the fall would be a perfect opportunity to put the issue to a referendum for resident tax payers to make the decision on curbside pickup.

Pereverseff also noted there would probably have been less of an issue, if the city had not expended hundreds of thousands of dollars on the three recycling depots. While the depots will remain open after curbside makes an appearance, they will likely not see the use they are getting now.

While the city stated they have had overwhelmingly positive response to proposed curbside recycling, Pereverseff initiated emails to the Mayor and Councillors questioning that response and where it comes from.

In response, Pereverseff received an email from Councillor Jeff Carlson stating:

“Council received 230 emails regarding recycling between October 2014 and March 2015. Of those, 36.5% were opposed to Curbside in one form or another, 60% were in favour of Curbside in one form or another, and nearly 4% were simply inquiries for further information.”

However, Pereverseff points out the information is almost two years old.

In an attempt to put the issue to rest, Mayor Chris Spearman issued the following statement last week.

“In the municipal election of 2013, curbside recycling was a major issue and the subject of widespread community discussion. The results of that election were that candidates who favoured curbside recycling were elected and those who opposed it were defeated.

In our Strategic Plan, the current City Council committed to taking a leadership role in the protection and preservation of our natural environment in Lethbridge. The objectives we set out included investigating the implementation of curbside recycling.

City Council has set specific waste diversion targets for our community, and the only way to increase waste diversion and achieve these targets is to have all sectors of the community doing their part. This includes the strategy we’ve set out for the industrial, commercial and institutional sector and the strategy for residential curbside recycling.

Over the past several years, this issue has been discussed extensively by City Council and in our community. The feedback City Council has received since we approved residential curbside recycling in November 2016 has been overwhelmingly positive, and there are no plans for further debate on curbside.

Those who oppose curbside recycling are entitled to run as candidates in the next municipal election later this year, and the issue can again be decided by the voting public, as was done in 2013.”

by Dori Modney (@Dori_Modney on Twitter)

Lethbridge Committee for Government Affairs up-cycles the curbside issue

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