'The important thing about doing this is to ensure that things get recycled that should be recycled. That's incredibly important,' says councillor
Orillia will pick up the can the province dropped.
City council agreed to spend about $278,000 to continue curbside recycling pickup for local small businesses, hospitals, churches and others at Monday's meeting.
Starting Jan. 1, the province is transferring the responsibility of curbside recycling pickup from municipalities to the producers of materials, but only for residences. The consortium, Circular Materials, will be picking up residential recyclables on behalf of producers.
The move will save Orillia taxpayers $1.8 million, but it leaves industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) customers to take on the responsibility and cost of recycling -- a move that has prompted backlash from businesses.
Coun. David Campbell argued at Monday's council meeting Orillia should pick up the tab for collecting recycling from ICI even though it comes at a relatively high cost because he doesn't want to burden small businesses with extra costs or have recyclables end up as pollution.
"Based on conversations with (the Downtown Orillia Business Improvement Area) and the general public, they really support the continuation of the ICI program. I made it pretty clear to them that they are going to take part in the cost of that through their taxes and they all seem quite amendable to that," Campbell said.
"The city is realizing $1.8 million (in) savings ... so we take $278,000 from that to cover the cost of this.
"The important thing about doing this is to ensure that things get recycled that should be recycled. That's incredibly important, and from what I've heard, the majority of people in the city certainly support this."
At its Oct. 6 meeting, council was asked to determine how best to move forward as of Jan. 1: to eliminate curbside recycling pickup for all ICI customers in Orillia or to develop an online registration for businesses in Orillia that want to continue receiving curbside collection service for recycling box materials at a cost of about $278,000 to city taxpayers.
Greg Preston, the city's director of environmental services, recommended the city stop collecting recyclables for the ICI sector based on economies of scale.
Currently, there are more than 15,000 collection stops in Orillia between residential and ICI customers. When the residential component is removed Jan. 1, there will be about 300 ICI customers, making collection for those customers onerous financially, he explained.
In addition, Circular Materials, the producer responsibility organization, will not pick up from ICI customers, so Orillia will have to contract out ICI pickup to another company.
A decision was deferred Oct. 6 so the city could canvass the BIA. That organization, council learned Monday, is urging the city not to eliminate curbside pickup.
"This decision would have profound financial, operational and environmental impacts on our downtown small businesses and properties," notes a letter from Doug Cooper, chair of the BIA.
"Due to the large number of businesses in such a small geographical area, some downtown businesses simply don't have the space or the access to consider a private recycling option."
Cooper urged the city to continue its current practice while lobbying the province to reverse its policy, and city council agreed.
The $278,000 will have to be added to the mayor's proposed operating budget, which was tabled Oct. 20 with a tax levy rate increase of 1.5 per cent. It will result in a .1 per cent tax levy increase associated with the operating budget.
Coun. Jay Fallis also supported the city picking up the tab for ICI recyclables.
"I think it's completely ridiculous that the consortium is not covering this ... It falls upon us to pick up the slack," he said.
Coun. Janet-Lynne Durnford echoed that opinion.
"My disappointment is with the province for not ensuring that the ICI sector (was) part of the responsibility of the producers. I know that we will continue to advocate to the province to ensure that they are holding the producers to that responsibility," she said.
Businesses wanting to continue to have recyclables picked up must register with the city by Nov. 28 to ensure pickup starts Jan. 1.
Here's what surrounding municipalities are doing with respect to business recycling collection as of Jan. 1:
The County of Simcoe is eliminating business curbside recycling collection. Recycling can be dropped off at county waste management facilities for a fee. The City of Barrie has set up an online business registration system. The District of Muskoka is not collecting recycling from businesses outside of business improvement areas. Recycling can be dropped off at district waste management facilities for a fee. The City of Kawartha Lakes will no longer offer curbside recycling collection services to businesses given the collection of this material is ineligible in the Blue Box Regulation.