City of Prince Rupert puts ambitions for new curbside collection program in motion, including new plans for use of city supplied garbage cans for residents

A tip assist garbage can
as used by the City of Richmond

If you need a new garbage can, maybe hold off on a purchase for the next little while, for it appears that the City of Prince Rupert will be changing the way that garbage is collected at the curb; as well it seems to introduce a blue box recycling program this summer.

The plan ahead is detailed somewhat in a Request for Bid post to the BC Bids website from last week, which includes some documentation that outlines the city's focus for waste collection for 2021.

"The City of Prince Rupert is launching a new curbside collection program for recyclable materials beginning in July of 2021. 

As a part of this program, the City must provide each resident a bin for collection of their recyclable materials. 

In 2020, the City received a new split- bay rear-loading collection vehicle with a tip-assist mechanism. 

To reduce strain on the City’s operators, the City will also be providing residents with new solid waste bins compatible with this tip-assist mechanism." -- From City of Prince Rupert RFP with BC Bid

The program which is being coordinated by the City's Building Services Manager, Hans Seidemann will offer the following as the scope of service towards the collection bin project.

The services will comprise supply and delivery of collection bins for the Project including, without limiting: 

(i) Supply of 5,000 blue recycling bins (approximately 65 gallon size), 

(ii) Supply of 5,000 black or grey solid waste bins (approximately 35 gallon size), 

(iii) Supply and affixing of InnovaTrac RFID transponders to all bins, 

(iv) Printing and affixing of three City of Prince Rupert decals to all bins, 

(v) Printing and affixing home address label to all bins, 

(vi) Distribution of bins to 4,200 households within the city, and; (vii) Logging of bin deliveries in the InnovaTrac database. -- From City of Prince Rupert RFP with BC Bid

Sample of a 65 gallon blue recycling bin 
(photo from Uline)

Mr. Seidemann is hosting an information meeting for proponents, scheduled for Friday, February 19th at 2PM

The timeline from Bid to pick up at your curb is pretty short. 

That as the Bids request is set to close on March 5th, followed by the awarding of the contract on March 9th and the collection bins being distributed to city households by June 18th.

The topic of curb side recycling has been occasionally mentioned as a goal for City Council over the years, 

December 2019 -- Capital project tutorial 'paves' the way to 2020 for City Council

September 2019 -- With plans for a Transfer Station closure, Recycling takes a step backwards ... before curb side pickup plans are ready
February 2019 -- 2019 to see potential progress towards city's interest in curb side recycling initiative

The most recent nod towards themes of garbage collection and recycling wishes came as part of Mayor Lee Brain's New Years Eve Facebook message to residents, though he limited his notes to the prospect of curb side recycling, with no hint of the larger plans ahead.

The purchase of the new $388,000 garbage truck was one of the accomplishments noted in the 2020 Annual Report, though the prospect of a future larger changes for homeowners was not noted at that time.

The addition of city supplied garbage cans is somewhat of a new addition to the garbage collection concept; with this the first real notice or indication that our current home garbage can may soon be obsolete and how we will require the City supplied cans for use past mid June. 

It's a topic which residents may have some questions to ask of their elected members, such as if there will be any additional costs to residents and any other changes to policy that may come from the new plans. 

If nothing else, the members of City Council should at the least provide homeowners with some details of the plan moving forward before the request for bids process comes to an end.

While we await some background from the Mayor and Council towards the brave new world of garbage collection seemingly ahead, some interesting reading on similar themes from Richmond might be of some help to get a feel for where Prince Rupert may by heading in its new waste disposal policies.

You can review the full Request for proposal from the BC Bid website here.

A look at some of the past RFP's from the City of Prince Rupert can be reviewed here.

For more notes on past City Council themes see our archive page here.