From the City of Richmond:
Richmond, BC – Richmond residents can lower their curbside garbage collection rates by selecting a smaller cart size as part of Richmond’s new biweekly (every other week) Garbage Cart program which will start in early 2016. Residents are being invited to select their preferred cart size now as part of preparing for the new program. Residents’ garbage will continue to be collected weekly until they receive their new carts.
“Our residents are dedicated recyclers and as a result have reduced their garbage by about 71 per cent. With our new Garbage Cart program, reducing their garbage will also result in lowering their curbside garbage collection fees,” says Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, who is also chair of the Metro Vancouver Zero Waste Committee. “Our convenient services make it easy to recycle for more sustainable waste management. Plus, with less garbage, we are able to start reducing our costs and we’re passing those savings along to our residents.”
Under the biweekly Garbage Cart program, staring in 2016, the City is providing residents with garbage carts with lids and wheels at no cost. Residents have until January 8, 2016 to order their preferred cart size and the smaller the cart they order, the lower their rates for curbside garbage collection. If residents are happy with the standard size for their homes, which are Large (240 litres) for single-family homes and Medium (120 litres) for townhomes, they don’t need to order a preferred cart size; they will automatically receive the standard size when the carts are delivered in February and March 2016. Residents will be able to request one cart exchange at no additional charge through the end of 2016. Any additional cart exchanges are $25 each.
Residents can order their garbage carts a few different ways: online at www.richmond.ca/garbage, by mailing the postcard included in a garbage cart size selection kit being mailed to residents this week, or in person at displays the City is hosting at shopping centres and in City facilities over the next two months. Residents can also call the Environmental Programs Information Line at 604-276-4010 to place their cart size order or obtain more information.
Biweekly collection does not start until the new carts are delivered, and residents will receive an information kit with their new carts, which will provide details on when biweekly collection begins and how to use the new program.
Residents’ collection day will remain the same, and recycling with the Green Cart and Blue Box/Blue Cart programs will continue to be collected every week. Garbage cart deliveries will start in February and continue through to the end of March as the City transitions to the new program.
The new Garbage Cart program is based on a Garbage Cart Pilot Project that found that residents with biweekly garbage collection increased their Blue Box recycling by 55 per cent and their Green Cart recycling by 44 per cent, and they reduced their garbage overall by 20 per cent.
Reducing garbage is an important part of dealing with the increasing costs related to limited landfill space, as well as providing a more sustainable approach to waste management. This new program is designed to increase recycling and help the City achieve its next target of 80 per cent waste diversion by 2020. The City’s Recycling Depot, located at 5555 Lynas Lane, provides additional recycling services for standard blue box materials, plus many more materials to help residents recycle as much as possible.
Cart sizes options and annual net rates (garbage collection portion only):
