The City’s Water and Waste Department found itself in hot water last week when it released a draft of a proposed plan to overhaul its waste handling system.

Mayor Sam Katz found the department’s commitment to transparency too ambitious, and barred solid waste manager Darryl Drohomerski from media interviews.

The leaked plan divulges a recommendation to replace garbage cans with wheeled plastic bins, which would be lifted and dumped mechanically instead of manually.

Two years ago, residents in 42,500 homes in northwest Winnipeg were taken by surprise when a pilot project for their area was made public a week before council was to vote on it. They received the rolling bins in February 2010.

Tammy Melesko, a city communications officer, confirmed no one from the City was available to talk about garbage – not even to discuss the success of the northwest pilot project.

“I can tell you that garbage was reduced over 20 per cent after carts were implemented,” she said.

In other areas of the city, the amount of trash remained unchanged or increased, Drohomereski reported in April. He said the northwest recycled 47,000 metric tonnes last year, the highest recycling level ever seen in the city.

“ The northwest part of Winnipeg recycled 47,000 metric tonnes last year, the highest recycling level ever seen in the city.

The 20 per cent drop in waste collected amounted to nearly 11,000 metric tonnes, he said at the time.

While these numbers would suggest that the area actually produced more recycling than waste (47,000 vs. 44,000 tonnes), no one from the city would venture to confirm the math.

“Unlike garbage, diversion isn’t measured by area,” Melesko explained.

The new bins aim to encourage recycling, as any trash not fitting in the bin is not collected without a surcharge.

If the plan is approved, the new bins would be delivered citywide by fall of 2012. Blue boxes would also be replaced with larger containers.

The Comprehensive Integrated Waste Management Plan, prepared by consulting firm Stantec, also proposes leaf and yard waste be collected every two weeks from April to November, and the Brady Road landfill receive a major overhaul. A citywide curbside organic-waste collection program would be introduced by 2017.

The report predicts recycling diversion rates of 35 per cent of waste by 2016, and more than 50 per cent by 2020. Winnipeg’s current rate is about 17 per cent. 

“We can do much better than that,” said Josh Brandon of Winnipeg’s Green Action Centre, noting Toronto has a 70 per cent goal.

The report offers two funding options – either covering recycling with property tax and garbage collection with a $50 per household user fee, or funding both from property tax. The estimated cost for the first five years of the plan is $46 million, plus up to $7.3 million in increased annual operating costs, the report notes.

Colin Craig of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation doesn’t like either option.

He prefers the city stop using taxes to fund waste collection, and instead fund both garbage and the proposed compost collection entirely on a user-pay basis.

“A lot of people have their own composting system,” he said.

Published in Volume 66, Number 3 of The Uniter (September 15, 2011)