As Prince George residents receive their blue bins for the incoming Multi-Material B.C.-managed curbside recycling program, another group is gathering feedback on a plan to fill the gaps.
A draft plan by StewardChoice Enterprises is open for public consultation before submission to the Ministry of Environment as an alternative to the existing MMBC plan.
MMBC is currently the only stewardship group representing producers of packaging and printed paper. As of mid-May, those producers became responsible for collection of the material sent into the marketplace.
Single-family homes already receiving curbside garbage collection service will begin receiving bi-weekly recycling collection by MMBC-contracted Emterra Environmental on Sept. 1. Blue bins are currently be distributed across the city. Materials can already be dropped off to the Hart Return-It Centre and P.G. Recycling and Return-It Centre on Peterson Road.
StewardChoice Enterprises is a subsidiary of Reclay StewardEdge, an international organization based in Toronto specializing in "sustainability issues related to the end-of-life management of packaging and products," according to their website.
If approved, at the outset the StewardChoice plan would focus on multi-family residences currently receiving recycling services.
"So those buildings getting service by those private companies who are not part of MMBC are not getting any of the benefit of producer funding, not getting any money from manufacturers and that's the gap in the market that we are initially proposing to fill," said StewardChoice development director Neil Hastie.
Expanding service to Prince George and other Regional District of Fraser-Fort George communities not served by MMBC and currently outside the scope of StewardChoice's initial offerings is something that Hastie has an eye on for the future.
"I would say our intention is to look at where in the province citizens and communities are not getting producer-funded services and to see whether or not we might be able to, over a period of time, bring producer-funded services to those communities," said Hastie, who previously headed Encorp Pacific.
Much like the beverage container stewardship program, any expansion into smaller communities with a smaller population is based on an evaluation of whether a business case would work, he said. "We would do that when it comes to the StewardChoice program. We would try to find places we could add service that isn't being provided right now."
Consultation on the draft plan - available online at stewardchoice.ca - will continue until September. If approved by the ministry, the company is aiming for a 2015 start date.
When addressing the regional district in the spring, MMBC managing director Allen Langdon told the board part of the problem with expanding the service outside of the city boundary was that there were producers who hadn't signed on to the program.
"For us to add any more collectors at this point would mean our existing members would be subsidizing businesses that have not yet discharged their obligations," Langdon said in April. "I'm not sure you should be looking at MMBC to provide a solution, but rather look at the other businesses that have not yet joined or discharged their obligations as to what a solution might be."
StewardChoice is going to compete for producers, said Hastie, especially those who haven't signed on the the MMBC program - such as the newspaper industry.
"We think we can make a good strong offer and we are confident we will attract producers who may not be signed on with MMBC just for that reason that there was some things in the MMBC business system that they didn't support," said Hastie. "So that's one of the reasons we think if we come in and offer an alternative or offer choice that we will attract producers and that will bring more producer funding to more parts of the province."
