Big changes are coming to the way British Columbians recycle as curbside pickup is set to be taken over by a new company.
Materials Management B.C. (MMBC) will be responsible for recycling province-wide by May 2014.
But the city of Kamloops, like many other cities around the province, want no part of the new scheme. Municipalities have until Monday to sign a deal that would hand over control of their blue box collection to a provincially-regulated agency.
“It’s ridiculous what they’re proposing,” said Tina Lange, Kamloops City councillor. “they are saying ‘lock yourself in to a five-year contract, we will do all your recycling, pickup, or contract your city to do it. However, the rules are insane and we haven’t got any hard facts from them.
More communities are opting out, continuing to do the curbside pickup internally until a more equal arrangement can be worked out.
“They can change the terms, they can go from a weekly collection, to a bi-weekly collection, they can change the materials that are involved, there’s all kinds of changes they can make unilaterally, that we have very little control over and can’t control the cost of in any effective way,” said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie.
MMBC was created to make industry responsible for recycling. It has been a bit of a bumpy road getting operational by next May.
A proposal to take glass out of the curbside program was met with opposition, and now with the deadline to sign on approaching, cities with established programs are leery of making a snap decision.
Cities that opt out can still get in with MMBC announcing today it will continue to negotiate with municipal governments.
The end goal is to shift the cost of recycling from the taxpayer to industry.
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