Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM:

General Manager of Engineering Services

SUBJECT:

Apartment Recycling Utility Fee and Revision to Solid Waste and Recycling Bylaw No. 7832

 

RECOMMENDATION

POLICY

On January 13, 1993, Council approved, in principle, the Apartment Recycling Program subject to the establishment of the user-fee, cost recovery mechanism know as the Solid Waste Utility.

On October 7, 1997, Council approved the implementation of the Solid Waste Utility effective January 1, 1998.

On April 28, 1998, Council approved implementation of the Apartment Recycling Program, whereby Vancouver Apartment buildings will be provided recycling services on a mandatory pay, voluntary participation basis.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to recommend the year 2000 utility fee for the Apartment Recycling Program, to recommend the decommissioning of the six mini-depot sites, and to highlight some of the necessary changes to the Solid Waste and Recycling Bylaw.

BACKGROUND

In 1995, a pilot Apartment Recycling program for 150 buildings was implemented to help determine efficient means of delivering recycling service to multi-family buildings. In addition, six mini recycling depots were established to provide interim recycling for multi-family residents. These depots are located at the Gordon Neighbourhood House, Vancouver Aquatic Centre, Kits House, Mt Pleasant Community Centre, Champlain Heights Community Centre, and the Brittania Community Centre.

On April 28, 1998, City Council approved the implementation of the Apartment Recycling Program. The Apartment Recycling Program was intended to bring recycling facilities to all multi-family buildings. The program has been implemented and provided free of charge through 1999. In most buildings a minimum of three 360 litre plastic carts have been placed in a central location for newspaper, mixed paper and mixed containers. Small buildings (less than six dwelling units) receive blue boxes and recycling bags similar to the single family blue box program.

The service is provided only to the residential dwellings in the following types of buildings (as defined in the property tax system):

DISCUSSION

General Apartment Recycling Service

The majority of the buildings receiving Apartment Recycling will utilize a minimum of three wheeled carts collected weekly. Buildings with five or fewer suites will receive a Blue Box and a blue and yellow bag collected weekly when placed at the curb. Typically these sites do not have room to store three carts and often share space with commercial tenants, so the blue boxes are a workable solution. Both systems will be charged the same utility fee.

Pilot Program and Mini Depots

All of the Pilot Sites have now been transferred to the Apartment Recycling Program. The six mini-depots, installed as an interim recycling measure for apartments, are now obsolete and can be decommissioned. The total tonnage from the six sites has dropped from approximately 100 tonnes per month to 25 tonnes per month. The remaining 25 tonnes is predominantly deposited by business and commercial sources. The recycling depot at VSTS will remain available for that stream of recyclables. It is proposed that the mini-depots be decommissioned on April 1, 2000.

Prior to decommissioning the mini-depots, staff will investigate replacing them with cardboard recycling containers. In many apartment buildings cardboard disposal is difficult as it must be collapsed and sometimes cut in order to fit into the recycling carts. Residents often leave the cardboard near the carts instead of placing it in the carts. A cardboard collection service at the current mini-depot sites may alleviate this potential problem by providing a convenient alternative for recycling of larger quantities of cardboard. However, it is too early to tell if this service is needed. Staff contacted managers at all the mini-depot sites to determine whether a cardboard only depot could be supported at their site. Response was generally positive as most managers felt the service would benefit the community.

By closing the mini-depots on April 1, $190,000 can be cut from the Apartment Recycling Operating Budget keeping costs as low as possible.

Utility Rate

Included in the approval to implement the Apartment Recycling Program, City Council recommended funding the program annual operating cost via user fees charged to each dwelling unit through the Solid Waste Utility. At the time of program approval (April `98) the utility fee was anticipated to be $16.00 per dwelling unit per year.

Based on known collection costs, program overhead, and revenues from recyclables, the net cost to provide Apartment Recycling is $1,785,000. This works out to approximately $17.00 per dwelling unit per year. Appendix A contains details of the operating budget.

Rollout Charges
.
Apartment buildings with more than five dwelling units use the 360 litre carts for their recyclables. These can be heavy and awkward, making them difficult for many residents to manoeuver and bring to the curb or lane for collection. To encourage participation in this mandatory pay program and to provide security for the carts, collection crews are required to retrieve the carts from a reasonable location instead of requiring residents to bring them to the curb. Research and discussion with potential contractors indicated that a rollout distance of 50 metres would satisfy the needs of most buildings and would allow predictability for bidding on the contract areas. Longer rollouts significantly reduce efficiency and increase costs.

It is proposed that rollout fees apply for properties requiring rollouts greater than 50 metres. The fees are based on the actual cost of truck and driver to do the rollout. Rollout fees are standard in the garbage container business for rollouts greater than a few metres. To avoid the fee, some building caretakers roll the carts out. At other buildings, building management works harder to ensure that the carts are located within the 50 metre limit. As a result, there are only about 20 buildings out of 4,800 sites that currently will be required to pay the fee.

The proposed rollout charges (based on the distance from the collection location to where the recycling truck can safely access and operate) for the year 2000 are:

The contractors will be required to recover this fee directly from the serviced building.

Billing

With the exception of strata buildings, the Apartment Recycling fee will be billed to the registered owner of the property. For rental apartment buildings, the building owner will receive the bill and will likely pass it on to tenants in their rents. In the case of strata buildings, the fee will be billed to the Strata Corporation and individual strata units will see the charge as part of their monthly maintenance fees.

The most efficient way to bill for the service is at the same time as the other utility and property tax charges. Changes to the Solid Waste and Recycling Bylaw will allow Financial Services to include this utility fee on the annual property tax billing in June of each year.

Bylaw Changes

The addition of the Apartment Recycling program will require some amendments to the Solid Waste and Recycling Bylaw. During this process staff will also take the opportunity to update the bylaw, removing items that no longer apply and clarifying language pertaining to Blue Box Recycling.

The most significant changes to the Bylaw will be the elimination of Part V - Commercial Size Container Service and addition of a new Part V - Apartment Recycling Service. As the Commercial Container Service was discontinued in 1997, this section of the Bylaw is no longer required. A new Part V will be added for Apartment Recycling Service and will include rules of the program, service limits, maintenance of the Carts, the utility rate and rollout rates.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Operating Costs

Annual operating costs of the Apartment Recycling Program include the following components: contract costs; collection and supervisory City staff costs; City management and contract administration costs; recycling container maintenance and replacement costs; recycling hotline staffing costs; and promotional and advertising costs. Staff estimate these costs to be $1,935,000 for 2000. Revenues from recyclables are estimated at $150,000 for a net program cost of $1,785,000.00

There are approximately 105,000 dwelling units receiving service under the Apartment Recycling Program. Therefore, the utility rate should be $17.00 per dwelling unit for 2000
Details of the Operating Budget are included in Appendix A.

CONCLUSION

With the Apartment Recycling Program now implemented, the annual operating cost can be assessed to users through the Solid Waste Utility. As well, the six mini depot sites provided in 1995 as an interim recycling measure can be removed.

- - - - -

APPENDIX A

Breakdown of expenditures and revenues for Apartment Recycling Program:

APARTMENT RECYCLING OPERATING BUDGET

ANNUAL EXPENDITURES

ANNUAL REVENUES

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