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CITY OF VANCOUVER ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT |
Date: |
March 22, 2004 | |
Author: |
Aby Sharma | |
Phone No.: |
604-871-6059 | |
RTS No.: |
03980 | |
CC File No.: |
3756 | |
Meeting Date: |
April 8, 2004 |
TO: |
Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets |
FROM: |
General Manager, Engineering Services |
SUBJECT: |
Litter Container Inventory Increase |
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT Council approve an increase of $110,000 in the street cleaning budget for 2004 and $190,000 annually from 2005 to fund the collection and interior maintenance costs of an additional 400 (approximate) litter containers in the City's inventory as approved in the street furniture report dated August 14, 2002. This increase in servicing cost to be funded from the increased Street Furniture Contract revenues.
B. THAT Council approve an extension of the term of the Street Furniture Contract project manager by six months, to the end of 2004, at a cost of $44,200 and that this cost be funded from the increased Street Furniture Contract revenue.
C. THAT Council approve the allocation of $284,000 from the Truck Plant Account to add two (2) litter can trucks to the Sanitation Operations fleet.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
General Manager of Engineering Services recommends approval of Recommendation A, B and C.
COUNCIL POLICY
On August 14, 2002 Council approved the addition of 400 street litter containers (50% increase over existing 800 locations) at an additional cost of approximately $350,000 per year subject to a report with a more detailed program description and refined cost estimate.
On January 29, 2004 Council approved changes to the management structure of the Sanitation Operation branch
Council approves expenditures from Reserves, including the Truck Plant Account
Council approves all increases in service levels, including the addition of vehicles to the fleet.
SUMMARY
To accommodate better service levels and the increase in the litter container inventory of 400 containers, Engineering Services recommends the following:
· Increase the level of service by servicing downtown 7 nights a week for the entire year and generally service the outlying areas for 7 nights during summer and 4 nights during winter. This includes service on statutory holidays.
· Eliminate the existing day shift servicing on streets and service all containers primarily at night beginning early 2005 when the new trucks arrive. The servicing of the containers along the seawall in False Creek and Coal Harbour area, which are serviced by litter carts (pick-up trucks), will remain unchanged.
· Purchase 2 additional litter container trucks with funding from the Truck Plant account bringing the total number of trucks to 5.
· Increase the level of cleaning/vacuuming the interior liners to about 4 times a year per container to improve sanitary conditions, reduce odours and more closely match the expected maintenance standards of the new street furniture.
These changes along with the increase in the number of litter containers from 800 to 1200, results in an increase to the street cleaning budget by $110,000 in 2004 and $190,000 annually, beginning in 2005.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to seek approval for additional annual funding to service the additional 400 litter containers previously approved in principle by Council on August 14, 2002 and to present changes in the collection methodology to provide a more effective and efficient litter container servicing program.
BACKGROUND
The City's existing litter container collection system includes approximately 800 litter containers on City streets. An additional 115 litter containers are located on and near the seawall around False Creek and Coal Harbour. There has been an ongoing public interest, expressed by numerous requests from residents and various BIA's (Business Improvement Areas), for the installation of more containers to reduce litter and thereby keep the City's streets cleaner. Under the new street furniture contract with Viacom/Decaux, the contractor will supply and maintain (exterior only) the litter containers as well as supply and replace the interior liners. This will involve replacing the existing 800 containers and installing 400 additional containers by the end of 2004, pending approval of the recommendations herein.
As part of our program to re-engineer litter container collection, Engineering Services reviewed the frequency these containers need to be serviced based on pedestrian traffic, location and historical rates of generation of litter. Based on the requests from business organizations and citizens, our own assessment of pedestrian traffic, and the current frequency of cleaning the existing containers, it is apparent that there is a requirement of more frequent service in some areas which is addressed in this report.
In response to previous queries from Council, staff is also looking at ways to make businesses whose sales tend to generate a larger amount of litter or disposable items to play a bigger` role in the supply and/or servicing of additional litter containers. It is expected that we will report back to Council on some viable options for Council's consideration this fall.
DISCUSSION
Existing Program
The existing collection crews operate litter-container trucks and service approximately 800 litter containers on city streets. The crew consists of
1) One (1) two-person nightshift crew (7 nights a week, primarily downtown)
2) Two (2) one-person day shift crews (only weekdays for the outlying areas) and
3) One (1) one-person weekend nightshift crew (Fridays and Saturdays for many of the same containers cleaned during weekdays as mentioned in # 2 above).
The existing service includes emptying the litter containers in the downtown area 7 nights a week throughout the year and the outlying areas 5 times a week during summer and 3 times a week during winter. 65% of the labour used in litter can collection is currently on nightshift, with the remaining 35% on days. Although the majority of nightshift workers are long term employees choosing to work nightshift, some employees use nightshift as an opportunity to enter the City workforce and ultimately transfer to dayshift.
In addition, litter carts (pick-up trucks fitted with dump boxes) service approximately 115 litter containers during the day along the waterfront at Coal Harbour and False Creek. Litter carts are less efficient but have to be used because the litter-container trucks are too heavy to drive on the seawall. 1-person crews operate the litter carts. These carts also collect ground litter at the same time. No changes are recommended for the litter cart program at this time.
Challenges
Under the present scenario the City faces the following challenges:
· The lack of, based on staff analysis and public interest, an adequate number of litter containers throughout the City to help minimize litter.
· The distribution of litter containers throughout the city could be rationalized to better accommodate litter generation rate.
· The amount of household garbage found in litter containers that eliminates space for street litter thereby causing overflows.
· The frequency of litter container servicing is occasionally inadequate. The current budget and schedule does not generally include statutory holidays, when a significant amount of litter is generated.
· The untimely, inefficient and irregular servicing of existing litter containers on day shift routes in busy commercial areas because of heavy traffic.
· The seasonal variation in the volume of litter generated which makes scheduling and servicing difficult.
· The insufficient frequency of container and liner cleaning which results in a build-up of sludge at the bottom of the containers and occasionally results in undesirable leachate leaking from these containers. Currently liners are cleaned twice a year in the downtown area and once a year outside downtown.
Proposed program
To address the challenges and to provide a level of cleanliness commensurate with the new street furniture, it is proposed that:
· 1,200 containers that are designed to deter residential garbage disposal (approximately 400 additional containers) be installed on City streets by the end of 2004.
· Day shift street litter container servicing be eliminated and that all litter containers on streets be serviced at night beginning 2005 to increase productivity.
· Containers be serviced more frequently and that regular collection occur on statutory holidays.
2 additional litter container trucks be purchased in addition to the existing 3 container trucks to service the increased number of containers and increased service frequency.
· Container liners be cleaned an average of 4 times a year throughout the City (an increase from 2 cleansings per year).
Analysis of existing day and night service shows that collecting during the day is 35% less productive than collecting at night. This is mainly due to traffic congestion.
It is also recommended that the downtown area, where the maximum litter is generated, be cleaned 365 nights/year and possibly an extra cleanup scheduled on peak days. For the outlying areas it is proposed that cleaning be done 7 nights a week during the summer months and 4 nights a week during the winter months. This variation in collection frequency is due to the change in the generation of litter during the summer (May 1 to October 30) and winter months (November 1 to April 30) for the outlying areas.
To ensure that all litter containers are placed in coordination with the other new street furniture being installed, and to ensure that placement is done in consultation with the local community, it is proposed to extend the term of the existing project manager of the Street Furniture Project by an extra six months, to the end of 2004.
ALTERNATIVES
Based on analysis by staff, it was found that to service 1200 containers (new and existing) under the current cleaning schedule, it would cost the City an additional $45,000 per year compared to nightshift only servicing. The table below summarizes the major differences between utilizing the current cleaning schedule and utilizing a nightshift only schedule.
Item |
Nightshift |
Day & Night |
Difference |
|
Operating Costs |
|||
Labour |
$116,300 |
$166,400 |
$50,100 |
Equipment |
$78,700 |
$74,400 |
($4,300) |
Maintenance |
($25,000) |
($25,000) |
- |
Disposal |
$10,600 |
$10,600 |
- |
Spot Clean-up |
$9,400 |
$8,600 |
($800) |
Total |
$190,000 |
$235,000 |
$45,000 |
The major difference between the two alternatives is that the day/night schedule results in increased labour costs. Although there is one additional vehicle required for the nightshift only option, the fleet life is increased so that the increase in annual equipment cost is not significant. Therefore, the nightshift alternative provides the most productive alternative.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
It is proposed that there be an increase of $110,000 in 2004 and an annual increase of $190,000 in the operating budget beginning 2005 for the servicing and maintenance of litter containers.
The two new litter container trucks which are required for this initiative will be purchased from the Plant Account, with cost-recovery from the litter collection program budget via the internal rental rates.
Funding for these increased costs can be provided by increased revenues arising from the Street Furniture Contract. Accordingly, there will be no net increase to the City's Operating Budget arising from the increased level of service recommended in this report.
PERSONNEL IMPLICATIONS
Ultimately there will be one (1) 2-person crew and three (3) 1-person crews working the new schedule at night to service the 1,200 containers. This corresponds to an increase in staff from 5 Full Time Equivalents (1 FTE = 250 shifts/year) to 6.5 FTE's per year.
The two-person crew will cover the downtown area, west of Gore Street up to Burrard Street (excluding Coal Harbor, Bayshore and False Creek which will continue to be serviced by the day shift litter carts). The two-person crew is being used for optimum efficiency and operator safety in the downtown area. The one-person crews will cover the remainder of downtown and the outlying areas.
Staff has discussed this proposal with CUPE 1004, which represents the workers that are affected by this change. CUPE 1004 does not support a further transition to nightshift collection of litter cans. Essentially the Union's position is that day shift jobs are preferable to nightshift jobs so the City should not be doing work at night that could be done during the day. They do acknowledge that it is more efficient to do this work at night and have suggested that they would not be opposed to any additional positions being on the nightshift, if at least one of the existing positions remains on days.
Staff response to that request is that retaining a dayshift beat would perpetuate an inefficiency on an ongoing basis. Given the level of traffic congestion that exists throughout the day on our arterial streets and in the downtown, it is far more effective to do this work at night. Accordingly staff cannot support retaining a dayshift litter collection beat.
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
To allocate the additional containers, staff has developed a model based on the number of business licenses, pedestrian traffic, historical litter generation and the presence of bus shelters. Businesses were categorized into retail, food services and service oriented. The number and type of each business category in the areas can be used to estimate the level of litter container need. High pedestrian traffic and presence of bus shelters will also affect the allocation. This model is applied to the Business Improvement Areas (BIA's) and areas represented by business associations. The new locations will be finalized after consultation with the various BIA's and associations affected. Draft routes for collection are being developed and will be reviewed, modified and implemented, as final container locations are determined.
The installation of the new containers is expected to commence in April 2004 and all 1200 containers are expected to be installed by the end of this year. To accommodate the servicing of these additional containers it is proposed that, a one person nightshift crew be added in June 2004. No existing employee incumbent to existing posted positions will be forced to nightshift from dayshift.
CONCLUSION
To accommodate better desired service levels and the increase in litter-container inventory Engineering Services recommend the following:
· Increase level of service by servicing the downtown area 7 nights a week for the entire year and service the outlying areas for 7 nights during summer and 4 nights during winter. This includes service on statutory holidays.
· Eliminate the existing day shift servicing of containers on streets, and service all containers primarily at night beginning early 2005. The servicing of the containers along the seawall in False Creek and Coal Harbour area, which are serviced by litter carts, will remain unchanged.
· Increase the level of cleaning/vacuuming the interior liners to about 4 times a year per container to improve sanitary conditions, reduce odours and more closely match the expected maintenance standards of the new street furniture.
· Purchase 2 additional litter container trucks with funding from the Truck Plant account bringing the total number of trucks to 5.
These changes along with the increase in the number of litter containers from 800 to 1200, results in an increase to the street cleaning budget by $110,000 in 2004 and $190,000 annually, beginning in 2005.
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