city of victoria committee of the whole report

CITY OF

VICTORIA

Committee of the Whole Report For the Meeting of August 18, 2016

To: Committee of the Whole Date: August 12, 2016

From: Fraser Work, Director of Engineering and Public Works

Subject: Solid Waste Management Update

RECOMMENDATION That Council direct staff to:

1. Continue the downtown Public Space Recycling Program and complete the resource assessment that would be required to deliver enhanced labelling and education/awareness to improve overall recycling and compost performance in 2017.

2. Complete a business case analysis of the various options for future yard waste management (collection and/or drop off), once more information is known about the future of integrated regional waste management.

3. Meet with the CRD and neighbouring municipalities to explore the potential for a compost pilot program in 2017 or 2018, and commence a business case analysis of the related organic waste management options, as required, based on the upcoming CRD planning decision and report back to Council with initial recommendations by December 2016; and

4. To develop a resource estimate to complete the City's Waste Management (and Action) Master Plan in 2017 as part of the 2017 financial planning process, which would align local and regional vision, strategy and planning.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The City is examining its waste management operations to improve public waste recycling, garden waste drop-off and organics collection. Solid waste management remains a legislated, regional responsibility of the CRD, and the City can enhance the waste management level of service based on Council's direction.

The CRD is presently considering waste water treatment options and the possibility of adopting an integrated approach to solid and liquid waste management. This integrated approach has the potential to alter current solid waste management practices in the region. Consequently, current planning and investment in solid waste by municipalities awaits the outcomes of the CRD's planning processes.

Within this constrained planning environment there are a number of opportunities the city can pursue in advancing its solid waste management program and, similarly, some opportunities that are limited.

Opportunities include: • Adoption of an aspirational long-term solid waste management target of net-zero waste.

Committee of the Whole Report Solid Waste Management Update

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• Continuation of the tri-bins public waste recycling pilot to determine opportunities to enhance its viability

• Entering into discussions with neighbouring municipalities to demonstrate the latest composting technologies that meet residents odour and site management requirements

Limited opportunities, until CRD planning advances, include: • Improving yard waste service to provide customer, financial and environmental benefits • Seeking improvements to the kitchen scraps program such as co-mingling kitchen scraps

and yard waste.

PURPOSE The purpose of this report is to update Council on the City's downtown, tri-bin recycling pilot project, the yard waste collection program, and overall considerations pertaining to solid waste management in Victoria.

This report aims to provide recommendations for improved solid waste management, towards an ideal model of reducing the City's waste streams to net zero, as the ultimate goals for the future.

BACKGROUND Public Space Tri-Bin Recycling Trial Council approved a Public Space Recycling Project primarily for the downtown core to assess a practical and affordable solution to improve recycling and composting rates in the downtown area. This pilot project was meant to help develop strategies for longer term improved public recycling. Specifically, the trial was implemented to better understand the potential volume of waste that could be diverted from landfill, and the contamination rates of trash, recycling and compostables. This project was implemented in July 2015.

Yard Waste Collection Program Over the past year, Council has raised questions as to the level of service provided by the City's Saturday yard waste collection program at the Garbally Road facility. This program allows residents to drop off their yard waste on Saturdays, which is then managed by Ellice Recycling, and locally re-purposed into organic yard and garden products. Several municipalities have recently introduced mixed organic and yard waste curb-side collection. Staff have been assessing the City model of waste collection and the available options to improve service quality for Victoria residents.

Victoria's Solid Waste Management Program - Overall Program Issues and Considerations Staff have commenced review of the City's solid waste management program, with particular attention to the specific needs of the municipality, with consideration of how those needs could be best met, within the context of the regional waste management systems.

ISSUES & ANALYSIS

Public Space Recycling Trial In July 2015, sixteen recycling containers were positioned in the downtown core (3 locations) and one unit at Dallas Road, near Cook Street, to allow residents and visitors opportunities to separate their waste into recycling, compostable, and general refuse. Staff monitored and measured the waste patterns at these locations, through pickup and sorting of the 16 tri-bins.

Waste audits of the 16 bins were performed in 2015 and 2016 to assess the performance of downtown public sorting at the tri-bin containers. During these audit periods, staff collected and manually sorted the waste streams, and disposed of them responsibly. Without manual sorting, the


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contamination levels are currently too high to be accepted by recycling or compost processors, which require near-zero contamination.

Overall, the trials show significant levels of cross-contamination between waste streams, which prevents the proper disposal of the two recoverable waste streams (recycling and compostable).

Figure 1. City trash bin contents - note significant recyclable material present.

The following specific key points define the outcomes of the pilot project:

1. 45%1 of the total waste collected is potentially recoverable, if properly disposed of. 2. On average, a third of each waste stream was improperly disposed of:

a. Recyclable contamination rate of 42% (ie. 42% was non-recyclable). b. Compostable contamination rate of 25% (ie. 25% was non-compostable). c. Recyclables/compostables disposed of in general waste: 29% (ie. lost opportunity).

3. Contamination is primarily takes the following forms: a. Food waste and trash mixed into recyclables; and b. Plastic and miscellaneous trash in the compostable bin.

4. Proper disposal of recycling, trash and compost waste could result in up to 230 tonnes of material to compost facilities2, and up to 133 tonnes could be recycled - material that otherwise would go to landfill.

5. Contamination rates were assessed between July and September 2015, and May to June 2016. a. Contamination rates were highest in summer months (July/August) b. Contamination rates were always highest in the downtown core (on Government

Street, compared to Blanshard Street, Fisgard Street, and Dallas Road locations).

1 All rates are percent by mass. 2 The compostable waste collected in the downtown tri-bins represents approximately 10% (by mass) of the residential kitchen scraps program, which is considered a theoretical maximum diversion opportunity. This does not include the compostable waste collected by City business (restaurants, hotels, etc), which is estimated to be significantly larger.


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Other municipalities using separate waste bin disposal programs suffer similar contamination problems, and are also forced to landfill much of the material collected. Victoria's contamination rates were compared to Halifax NS, Ottawa ON, Sarnia ON, Newmarket, ON, and Portland, OR, USA. On average, contamination rates for these municipalities are 26% for compostables (Victoria 25%), and 20% for recyclables (Victoria 42%). Portland and Newmarket suffer above 20% contamination rates for recycling. Victoria's relatively high recyclable-contamination suggests that more investigation is required to understand why separation is not better in this stream, and how it can be improved.

Key Issues 1. Education / Awareness: Proper disposal is likely a direct function of the awareness of the

public. The high contamination rates suggest that increased understanding of recycling and composting guidelines for the various waste products is required to promote better disposal practices.

2. Convenience: Improved convenience and design of the tri-bin may help improve separation practices.

3. Single-Use Packaging and Containers: Improved labelling and understanding of how to properly dispose of different product types and reducing the number of types will lead to better performance.

4. Resources: High contamination rates and our ongoing trials impose the requirement for manual assessment and sorting of recyclables and compostables, which require staff resources. Since the majority of the tri-bin waste is currently contaminated, the additional program costs may be difficult to justify, unless contamination rates were to drastically improve. Increased education and public awareness programs would require additional resources, not yet identified/defined across City departments.

5. Waste Management Integration: The Public Space Recycling Project trial only addresses one aspect of many solid waste management initiatives. A comprehensive review of the City's waste management issue, challenges and options is required to ensure the highest value investment in reducing the City's solid waste burden.

Yard Waste Collection Service The City's Saturday garden waste drop-off has been in effect since 1985, and was created to allow City residents access to local waste disposal services. The volume of yard waste has grown in recent years, which indicates the City will be at maximum capacity, as early as 2017. Operating at or near capacity may impose increased operating costs, service delays, and potential capital cost requirements that should be carefully considered against related management programs, to ensure the best value investment in yard-waste services.

Current Service The current service is able to accommodate approximately 100 individual drop-offs per hour, (700 daily), which normally approaches the storage capacity of the waste transfer units. These units are beyond their intended service life. The number of drops has risen steadily by 5% per year between 2011 and 2015, and has only recently levelled off due to the lower volumes common during drier summers. A wetter summer could exceed storage capacity of the current operation, and would require investment in additional capacity, or would impose delays/inconvenience on users of the service.

Approximately 8,500 of 14,000 registered residents currently use the Saturday drop off service, while all City residents pay for the service as part of the overall utility bill structure. Drop-off at the Garbally road facility creates issues related to traffic, security and safety risks, and environmental concerns primarily related to vehicle idling. The site is staffed by full-time employees.


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Key Issues: Staffs review of this service have raised issues in the following areas that influence any plans for managing risk, and help define advantages and disadvantages of various future options for yard waste collection.

1. Service Quality: Convenience of service-provision is related to location and operating times, and ease of use. Any option must carefully balance other risks, with service quality.

2. Financial Considerations: The following cost considerations are central to the discussion. • Capital Costs: Initial outlay for infrastructure or asset purchase / replacement. • Operating Costs: City operating cost, reflected in the utility service billing or capital

expenditures. • Resident Costs: Utility bill impacts and/or any fees for waste management.

3. Waste Management Integration Issues: The future of solid waste management in the City is tied to other regional programs, including kitchen scraps/organic collection and the proposed Waste Water Treatment Plan (WWTP), which may influence long term recommendations for yard waste management.

4. Environmental Considerations: The overall benefits of organic yard-waste collection, and the associated impacts of collection/processing operations have consequences that must be carefully managed (energy use / C02, air quality, etc).

Organic Waste Management The kitchen scraps collection program successfully diverts 35% of residential wastes to industrial compost facilities for re-processing, and avoids nearly 2,000 tonnes of landfill waste.

Currently, the City's residential kitchen scraps are collected at the curbside and processed at a facility in Richmond, BC, that creates both electrical energy and compost-soil product. The residential kitchen scraps program is estimated to be approximately 40% of the City's overall commercial organics collection volume (restaurants, hotels etc), which is also processed at mainland facilities.

In Saanich and other municipalities in the region, kitchen scraps are managed either by curbside collection, co-mingling with yard waste, backyard composting, or a combination. Some concerns have been raised in the past about the cost and greenhouse gases generated due to the transportation of the City's organic wastes to the mainland.

The future of this program is also related to emerging, regional integrated waste management strategies, namely the CRD's regional Integrated Solid Waste Resource Management Plan (ISWRMP). The CRD is currently awaiting decisions on the WWTP project before progressing their own long-term, solid waste management strategy.

A detailed business case that defines the full life-cycle costs and associated environmental and social impacts of this organics program (ie. triple bottom line assessment) is required to understand what long term solution poses the highest and most balanced value to the City. The long-term influencing factors associated with CRD projects will likely play a critical role in shaping that business case, and staff consider it prudent to await ISWRMP outcomes before decisions on organics waste management.

Staff could engage in discussions with neighbouring municipalities and the CRD to determine if any local composting pilot programs are of potential interest, to demonstrate the latest technologies that meet resident's odour and site management requirements. Staff's review of ongoing pilot and regional compost operations (Comox, Whistler, and Abbotsford) would indicate that modern


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composting facilities are highly capable of meeting both the affordability and odour-control performance requirements.

Overall City Waste Management Currently, the City does not have an integrated waste management master plan that provides a comprehensive assessment of the current waste management capabilities, issues, gaps and strategy. Although we mange waste cooperatively with the CRD, the unique needs of the City and the downtown area require specific solutions to be successful.

Through robust planning and partnering with regional waste stakeholders, staff can provide the assurance that the City is moving smartly towards a future goal of 'net-zero' waste, promoting 'circular economy' efficiencies, where products never become waste, but instead re-enter the economy as "valuable technical or biological nutrients"(see graphic at Appendix A)3.

The City of Victoria's OCP provides guidance on the management of waste and supports minimizing waste to landfill and optimizing waste recovery through adoption of closed loops systems. Increasingly, the concept of zero waste is being examined and adopted by municipalities and regional districts across BC.

OPTIONS & IMPACTS

Public Space Recycling Project Trial The below options are explored to determine the best manner to improve diversion and reduce contamination rates for public space recyclables and compostables.

1 Maintain the Status Quo (not recommended). The status quo' option does not treat the issues and risks surrounding program effectiveness, cost, or value for money.

2. Remove the Bins (not recommended). Retiring the tri-bins due to the experience high contamination rates does not treat the overall risk/desire of waste diversion/reduction.

3. Expand the Current Service (not recommended): Expanding the service without improvements would exacerbate program costs without improving diversion rates and contamination issues.

4. Move to Single Stream Recycling (not recommended): the capital expenditures to develop such a capacity would include infrastructure and/or contractor support and could be part of long term planning options, but this is deemed unsupportable at this time since it does not improve public behaviours, and poses unfavourable near term costs, and potentially does not align with any future waste water treatment facility solid waste capability.

5. Bin Design and Awareness Improvement Program (recommended): Improve the bin labelling and lid design, and introduce enhanced communication / information and awareness building tools to help educate the public on proper disposal practices in the downtown core and continue tracking contamination performance, as required.

Option 5 is considered the most supportable, as it intends to build public capacity for improved waste disposal behaviours and relies on current infrastructure, without significant costs implications. Resources to implement this option have not yet been assessed in detail and need to be examined to inform Council of the considerations of introducing this work plan into the 2016 or 2017 program.

3 Ellen Macarthur Foundation Definition (available at: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/interactive-diagram).


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Yard Waste Collection Service Different municipalities employ a mix of curbside collection, drop-off facilities and contracted services for operations. The right fit for Victoria will depend on a detailed assessment and business case comparison. Any near-term waste water treatment decisions may impact the below options, which suggest that further analysis and assessment of the upcoming CRD decisions, may be most prudent. Several options improve yard waste service have been assessed.

1. Maintain the Status Quo I Additional Analysis (recommended for the near term): As capacity is currently being met during the "high" season, it is recommended that additional analysis is completed to determine the business case to determine the most favourable option, considering operating and residential costs, service quality and the future of wastewater integration.

2. Future Consideration/Options (recommend completion of business case after CRD decisions on WWTP solid waste schemes):

a. Expand the high-season hours of service: Expanding the hours of service may be the initial interim action, if additional service capacity is required in 2017, while contractor logistics (pickup/drop off timings/days) will have to be assessed.

b. Build new facility (ies): Initial analysis of this option seems promising as it delivers enhanced services, and has merit due to the ability to integrate other waste management collection streams and services into simple facilities in more central locations to many residents.

c. Introduce Curb-Side Recycling: Curbside pickup of yard waste is the most convenient service, but may still require a drop-off facility, similar to the operations at the District of Saanich. This option could prove costly, as it may require new or modified infrastructure and operational capability (bins and more/larger trucks, different staff compliment).

d. Contract Yard Waste Processing: Contractor managed drop-off facility may push capital risk to a service provider, and deliver improved service frequency/availability, similar to the model currently used in Esquimalt / View Royal. This model could have cost savings or detriment, depending on the level and cost of the desired service. More analysis is required.

Organic Waste Management The below options are available for exploration/discussion:

1 Do Nothing / More Analysis (recommended): The upcoming decisions on WWTP and ISWRMP will influence the future decisions of organic waste management in the region. The City's decision on organic waste management should wait for the CRD related decisions to avoid sunk costs. In the interim, staff can progress discussions with the CRD and neighbouring municipalities to explore the potential for a compost pilot program and should commence the related organic waste, options business case analysis, as required, based on the upcoming CRD decisions.

2. Expand / Modify Service (not recommended at this time): The current program successfully and affordably processes a significant portion of residential waste. Modification of the current waste management scheme is tied to regional programs and may be impacted by upcoming CRD decisions.

Overall Waste Management Managing municipal wastes within the regional context requires participation, leadership, vision and independent action to resolve unique, City objectives. The Public Space Recycling Program, yard waste and organic collection system are all programs that are influenced by regional context, but offer enhanced services based on direction from Council. Development of the City's Waste Master


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(and Action) Plan, which aligns and/or influences the CRD planning and strategic vision, is deemed essential to identify areas for structured improvement over the coming years.

RECOMMENDATIONS That Council direct staff to:

1. Continue the downtown Public Space Recycling Program and complete the resource assessment that would be required to deliver enhanced labelling and education/awareness to improve overall recycling and compost performance in 2017.

2. Complete a business case analysis of the various options for future yard waste management (collection and/or drop off), once more information is known about the future of integrated regional waste management.

3. Meet with the CRD and neighbouring municipalities to explore the potential for a compost pilot program in 2017 or 2018, and commence a business case analysis of the related organic waste management options, as required, based on the upcoming CRD planning decision and report back to Council with initial recommendations by December 2016; and

4. To develop a resource estimate to complete the City's Waste Management (and Action) Master Plan in 2017 as part of the 2017 financial planning process, which would align local and regional vision, strategy and planning.

2015 - 2018 Strategic Plan The following objectives of the strategic plan have been supported in running the Public Space Recycling Pilot project;

• Innovate and Lead • Engage and Empower the Community • Strive for Excellence and Planning in Land Use • Steward Water Systems and Waste Streams Responsibly • Plan for Emergencies Including Climate Change Short and Long-Term • Demonstrate Regional Leadership

Impacts to Financial Plan All residential garbage collection is fully funded through user fees. Any public space garbage collection is funded through property taxes. Resources required to implement these recommendations will be defined through assessments and estimates and presented to Council during budgetary discussions for approval/commentary.

Official Community Plan Consistency Statement The project was consistent with and in support of the following sections of the Official Community Plan (from chapters 11 and 12); 11 (b) That water and solid waste are managed as closed loop systems with optimal levels of recovery and re-use. 11 (f) That discarded materials are managed to reduce waste at landfill. 12 (a) That climate change is mitigated through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, transportation and solid waste.

CONCLUSIONS Staff recommend a precautionary approach to investment in a number of City waste management programs, specifically the Saturday yard waste drop-off program and the kitchen scraps program.


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However, opportunities exist for further investigation and optimization of Public Space Recycling Project through the tri-bin pilot; adoption of a net-zero waste goal, and progressing discussions with regional municipalities on demonstrating the latest composting technologies.

Respectfully submitted,

/ Taal^Da^ran Manager, Waste Management

Frase (—'"t)irector, Engineering and Publi

Report accepted and recommended by the City Manager:

Date:

List of Attachments Appendix A: Circular Economy Graphic


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city of victoria committee of the whole report

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