District of North Vancouver council is leaving a proposal to reform its controversial garbage collection system at the curb.
Coun. Roger Bassam put forward a motion Sept. 18 that would direct the district to “resume the collection of all yard waste that is appropriately presented for collection.”
The district has been rolling out a new system that requires district residents to use lockable bins, replacing the old system that allowed organics to be disposed of in up to six large paper bags. But, beyond some bumps in the early implementation, many residents have complained just one weekend of yard work could fill several weeks’ worth of bins.
That was unacceptable, according to Bassam, who argued that garbage collection is one of the core duties expected of municipalities.
“We had a system that works. We engineered a solution that sort of works but really has fallen short of a number of people’s desires for their service levels in the community,” Bassam said. “The feedback that I’ve received from the community is ‘Hang on a second, I’m already paying a lot of money in taxes. I just need an ability to handle a surge of green waste twice a year.’”
The district has already tweaked the system to allow residents a second 240-litre garbage cart free of charge with the option to purchase even more, in response to citizen complaints. At 480 litres per household, the district allows more garbage output than any municipality in the Lower Mainland, according to district staff, and the district is one of only two in the Lower Mainland that still has weekly collection.
Bassam could find only one ally on council, though: Coun. Jim Hanson.
“It might make sense. There might be good reasons for it. There might be good science behind it. But from my point of view based on the community feedback ... somehow it just missed the mark in terms of satisfying the community need,” Hanson said.
The remaining five members of council said it was too soon to reform the system when some neighbourhoods haven’t even received their new bins yet. So far, only 35,000 of the 52,000 bins the district expects to distribute have been delivered.
Coun. Lisa Muri said it would be appropriate to review the entire system after it has been in place for a full year, allowing all the kinks in the system to be resolved. Muri is an avid gardener who hasn’t yet seen for herself how the system will work when it arrives in her neighbourhood.
“I really think to be fair to the whole community, we all have to get our cans before we open up this can of worms, or leaves, or whatever you want to call it, again,” she said.
Coun. Mathew Bond suggested only two per cent of single-family lots in the district are big enough that two bins wouldn’t suffice. Designing the system for the needs of that two per cent would be an unfair burden to the other 90 per cent, he added.
“There are private solutions. You can hire lots of great contractors in this community that will gladly come by if you pay them a fee and they’ll take your yard waste a way,” he said.
