Curbside recycling will start in Prince George Sept. 1.
According to provincial legislation passed in 2011, producers of packaging and printed paper are responsible for the stewardship of the materials they introduce to consumers as of May 19.
But with curbside collection being a brand new service in Prince George, the September date was the fastest collection could be launched locally, said Multi-Material B.C. (MMBC) managing director Allen Langdon.
MMBC is the organization responsible for managing the packaging and printed paper recycling on the industry's behalf and they selected Emterra Environmental as the contractor to deliver the service, both in Prince George and Quesnel.
"They're going to have to acquire new trucks, new bins, hire people and I think all that is just going to take time," said Langdon. "And to make sure we could launch it correctly, Sept. 1 was the earliest we could start to provide service."
The bi-weekly service will consist of the collection of two bins - one for printed paper and the other for packaging.
"Overall I think it's a huge win for the city of Prince George and for Quesnel," said Coun. Cameron Stolz, who chaired the regional district's standing committee on curbside recycling recommendations. "The nice part about this is, although there is still the question of how the manufacturers are going to cover those costs, there won't be an additional cost attached to the actual recycling program."
Last summer, both city council and Regional District of Fraser-Fort George board of directors turned down the financial incentives on offer by MMBC to collect recyclables themselves.
"That was really important because the amount of financial contribution that was being offered for doing so was not enough to cover the cost of implementing the program," Stolz said. "As well, there were significant penalties attached to not providing the program to the level that was expected by MMBC."
Emterra operates municipal curbside recycling in other B.C. communities and they are also part of the trio of organizations that make up Green By Nature EPR, which was awarded MMBC's post-collection contract.
"The company that's doing it, they've got a lot of experience in this field," said Stolz. "So I would trust this will be done in a very professional manner and look forward to the results that come from it."
Most types of packaging and printed paper will be eligible for curbside collection, but there are some notable exceptions.
Any type of glass, styrofoam and plastic film as well as aluminum and plastic beverage cans and bottles will still need to be taken to the city's recycling drop-off depots.
"When those materials are co-mingled through a blue box, they don't tend to be recycled at a very high rate, if at all," said Langdon. "So there's more efficiencies to be gained if we can have them collected in a separate stream through a depot system."
New to the curbside recycling stream are steel aerosol cans, plastic clamshell packages, milk cartons, aluminum foil packaging and certain types of drink cups.
Langdon said bins will be dropped off to residents over the summer, along with more information about the details of the MMBC program.
