St. John’s has been talking about making the change for years, but now garbage trucks are ready to be replaced and there are lessons available through other municipalities in the province, acknowledged Coun. Danny Breen, chair of the public works committee. Automated garbage is coming, he said, in 2018.
Breen was part of a media event held at the Robin Hood Bay waste management site on Tuesday morning, promoting a last chance for residents to fundamentally alter how automated garbage collection rolls out in St. John’s.
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Engage St. John’s — Consultation sessions on automated garbage
Twelve public sessions are scheduled through June 17, with city reps looking to hear about anything from the preferred type of bin to desired exclusion areas, where automated garbage collection will not be implemented.
Areas where it has already been decided traditional collection will continue include some of the oldest and most difficult to navigate parts of the city, such as the downtown core. A map showing excluded areas is available on the Engage St. John’s website, along with the schedule for consultations.
Automating for safety
The top benefit of a move to automated garbage collection is the added safety for city workers. Collectively, directly handling between 500 and 700 bags of garbage a day, workers in St. John’s are injured about once every 50 days, according to director of environmental services, Andrew Niblock.
Injuries commonly recorded include repetitive stress injuries and strains, but also more acute injuries.
In 2012, as an example from The Telegram’s archives, a city worker cut himself on a broken wine glass, which had been tossed into a plastic garbage bag and set down at the curb. The employee was rushed to hospital, was given six stitches and was off work for two weeks.
With automated garbage collection, the bags like the one that carried the wine glass go into bins made of sturdy plastic, issued to residents who are responsible for rolling them to the curb. A truck equipped with mechanical arms can then grab and empty the bin.
The bins are to be paid for by the city. The city will retain ownership.
In terms of environmental considerations, the bins confine odours and keep birds and rodents from getting into garbage, compared to net and linen coverings on garbage day.
More efficient collection
Niblock said the city was previously organizing garbage collection routes based largely on the amount of work staff could physically handle in a day.
With automated garbage, he said, the city can develop routes based more on the limitations of the machinery (i.e. carrying capacity) in mind, potentially becoming more efficient.
Other concerns — about trouble caused by weather, potential theft, vandalism, storage and accessibility — have been largely worked out by councils in municipalities such as Paradise and Mount Pearl, where automated garbage collection is already in place.
The City of St. John’s wants to see any bumps in the road before they run into them and is asking everyone to take a moment and consider their own situations.
Would you prefer a medium bin able to carry four bags of garbage, or a larger bin designed for six bags? Right now, there is a tight race in the feedback, with early focus groups showing preference for the four-bag bin.
Either way, the days of 10 bags at the curb will be over.
“There are a number of people in the city who do put out a fair amount of bags every week,” Breen said.
Out of city budget
The exact cost to implement the program won’t be known until things like bin size are settled and tenders are back.
That said, the new system will require anywhere from $900,000 to $1 million to cover some related software and lifting devices.
The bins (all one size) are expected to cost in the range of $3 million for the four-bag bin, or $3.8 million for the larger bin.
The purchase of garbage trucks is not being included in the calculations, as trucks were being replaced regardless, but the city is expecting to buy fewer garbage trucks for the automated garbage collection.
Save public money
Dumping out garbage trucks in the landfill costs the City of St. John’s money. Dumping recycling at a facility, also at Robin Hood Bay, costs the city less money.
It’s left turn versus right turn, with the difference landing in your city budget.
Put another way, if the city takes a garbage truck blocked with bags full of old pop cans and juice boxes and drives it into the landfill, the tipping fee charged to taxpayers is $67.60 per tonne.
The same truck driven to the recycling centre carries a tipping fee of just $20 per tonne.
The City of St. John’s deals with seven to 10 tonnes of garbage per day, with the recycling rate currently at roughly 10 per cent.
The current campaign around automated garbage is doubling as a chance to remind residents of St. John’s to recycle.