Fort St. John risks $60K fees and $250K revenue loss over high rates of recycling contamination

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The city is at risk of incurring $60,000 in fees and forfeiting $250,000 in annual revenue if the worsening rates of recycling contamination in Fort St. John do not improve. 

An April 14th City of Fort St. John Committee of the Whole meeting heard recycling contamination in the city is four per cent higher on average than the target levels set by Recycle BC. 

As a result, Recycle BC requires the city to develop a written contamination reduction plan. 

“Our contamination rates are on the rise,” said Jeremy Garner, director of public works and utilities, in a presentation.

“We have an agreement with Recycle BC, they accept our collected recycling and they sell it to other processing facilities to use. Our agreement says we have to have our contamination at less than five per cent by weight.”

If the recycling contamination is not reduced immediately and dramatically, Recycle BC may refuse to accept any more product from Fort St. John.

This would force the city to pay to dispose of the product in landfill, incurring an estimated $60,000 in additional disposal fees and forfeiting $250,000 in annual revenue. 

Using a Smart Camera system, the city has been able to take pictures of the bin contents as they’re dumped into the trucks and review the images with AI to identify contaminants.

Most of the items being found in the bins are recyclable, just not in the curbside bins provided by the city. Residents must take these items, including glass and plastic bags, to the recycling depot themselves. Bagged items, recyclable or not, aren’t accepted by the city’s recycling stream, and are thus considered contamination.

Notices, both educational and warnings, as well as fines were issued to residents who habitually put the wrong things in their bins, and some bins have even been removed from properties that have repeatedly refused to comply with the curbside recycling program, Garner told council. 

While the Smart Camera system and education campaigns had an initial impact on reducing contamination, Garner said there has been a recent increase in the amount of glass, garbage bags and hardcover books showing up in recycling carts.

The Recycling Contamination Remediation plan (CRP) presented to council by Garner outlined suggested steps to achieve the required reduction in contamination.

Garner proposed four strategies:

• Utilize the Smart Camera and AI program by ensuring cameras are working continuously.
• Increase social media, other media source ads and posts on curbside recycling.
• Increase educational campaigns including updating the apps and website.
• Increase cart audits done by the bylaw team.

Councillor Tony Zabinsky suggested updating the stickers on the top of the bins to clarify what exactly can be placed in them. 

However, deputy chief administrative officer Darrell Blades pointed out there are approximately 7,000 bins in the city, so it would take years to put new stickers on every bin.

However, using the AI technology, the city has mapped out “hot zones” where contamination is particularly problematic, and Zabinsky suggested staff consider updating the stickers in those areas.

“One thing to keep in mind,” Garner said, “is people recycle. Systems don’t recycle, machines don’t recycle, it starts with people putting the correct items in the bin.”