A new recycling program continues to put the screws to the City of Richmond's recycling program, potentially costing it millions of dollars over the next few years.
A report to council indicates instead of the city gaining revenue for joining Multi-Material BC, it will, in fact, lose $132,000 this year due to start up costs ($520,000) and post-agreement changes dictated by the stewardship organization.
You will have noticed changes to your recycling program since May.
While recycling may seem easier and more materials can be included in your yellow bag and blue bin, it's also potentially costing you more money, according to critics. And, the new program is certainly not the windfall city bureaucrats and council thought it would be. Some cities refused to join MMBC.
MMBC is a private, industry-led recycling stewardship program for paper and packaging materials. Companies that produce packages now have to pay for their recycling. The companies — such as restaurant chains, publishers, food producers and manufacturers — pay fees to MMBC, which then gives municipalities an "incentive" rate to effectively collect the materials.
MMBC is to give Richmond $2.3 million in 2015 but the city must use that money to pay its collector, Sierra Waste.
The city agreed to the arrangement last November but then MMBC announced in April that recyclable materials collected in Richmond would need to be trucked to a processing facility in Surrey (whereas before, when the city had full control of its recycling, materials would be sent to a processing facility in Richmond). The added costs of consolidating the materials will now cost about $400,000 per year. That number was initially thought to be just $340,000, but MMBC further changed how the materials would be sorted and weighed, costing an additional $60,000.
MMBC is regulated at arms-length by the provincial government, which created it.
Furthermore, the report notes "added initial costs/commodity revenue loss" will cost about $1 million in 2015, as MMBC, not the city, now makes money off of selling the recycled materials.
To boot, the city has spent about $16,000 on staffing to deal with the added administrative requirements.
When it's all said and done, the city stands to "save" a total of just $848,000 in 2015, down from the initial $1.3 million projection earlier in the year.
However, the final kicker is that the city is recommending to city council that some of the savings be retained in case there are additional contamination penalties imposed by MMBC.
One's recycling rates will increase by $13.70 to $277.50, annually for a single-family home, pending council approval (partly due to increased services).
Critics from the BC NDP charged that should municipalities not pass on the savings to taxpayers, the new system amounts to a double taxation on consumers since the fees companies pay to recycle their packages will be passed on to the buyer.
Proponents claim the program incentivizes companies to produce less packaging and ultimately means more materials are able to be recycled. Although, MMBC does not collect glass as it's inconvenient. The City of Richmond bears the costs as an added service (hence the small, grey bins), part of its environmental commitments.
According to the city, Richmond can reassess its contract with MMBC after three years.
The staff report, from Suzanne Bycraft, fleet and environmental programs manager, stated discussions are "ongoing" with MMBC regarding several of the aforementioned added costs.
