Wednesday December 13, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated 3:05 pm on December 14, 2023]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Effective January 2, 2024, GFL Environmental Incorporated (GFL) will begin delivering the Capital Regional District’s (CRD) curbside blue box collection program which provides recycling collection services to over 132,000 single family homes in the region.
The current population served the CRD through its 13 member municipalities and three regional districts is about 440,000.
The CRD issued the six-year contract to GFL in October 2022, 15 months prior to service beginning, to allow for the time necessary to procure, manufacture and deliver the collection vehicles and ensure a smooth transition from the current service provider.
While accepted materials remain the same, some scheduled collection days may change for residents throughout the Greater Victoria region effective January 2, 2024. The shift is to improve route efficiency and service delivery, as a way to service residents better, says CRD.
Impacted residents have been notified by mail:
“The route changes in blue box collection will impact around 8,300 households all through the Capital Region,” says Tracy Urquhart, Supervisor, Communications and Education Development, CRD.
Residents impacted by the route changes have been notified via direct postal mail and are encouraged to further access their 2024 collection schedule online or through the CRD recycling App.
Check the schedule for your street:
Residents in the region who receive curbside blue box collection services are advised to visit www.crd.bc.ca/bluebox to access their curbside collection schedule and download the Recycling CRD app.
Apart from Christmas day and New Year’s day, collection proceeds as usual on holidays. For some areas, what would be a Monday pickup on Christmas Day 2023 (December 25) the pickup will be pushed to Saturday of that week (i.e. December 30).
No glass pickup Jan 2 to Feb 1, 2024:
Residents are advised that glass pick-up will not be available between January 2 to February 1 due to labour disruption impacts.
How to recycle:
Ensure your bluebox materials are out by 7:30 am on any pickup day.
Details about what can be recycled and how it should be prepared for curbside pickup are posted in the CRD Blue Box Program web section.
Regional growth:
“We are committed to environmental sustainability and providing efficient waste management solutions,” said Russ Smith, Senior Manager, CRD Environmental Resource Management.
Smith says: “This new contract offers increased collection capacity to reliably service the region, including future growth.”
There has been rapid housing development and continual population growth in the west shore region in particular in the past 10 to 15 years, including in Langford, Colwood and Sooke.
In the five years 2016-2021 Langford’s population increased by about 25% to 46,584, while Royal Bay increased by about 12% to 18,961, and Sooke saw an increase of about 15% to 11,583. As well, View Royal saw a population increase of nearly 9% to 11,575. Rural Metchosin which tries to keep its population around the 5,000 threshold (for funding reasons) saw a population increase of nearly 7% to 5,067.
“New households are added to the curbside blue box program on a continuous basis as eligible new homes are constructed, occupied and request service,” says Urquhart.
For contractual purposes, CRD says that house counts are updated annually. Between 2018 and 2022 the total count of homes being serviced increased from 123,629 up to 132,649 — an increase of about 6.8%. “The house count will be updated again in 2024 to reflect additions to the program made in 2023,” says Urquart.
Local business angle:
GFL began operating in Langford and the Greater Victoria area when the company bought out part of the Langford-based Alpine disposal company in 2019.
Low/zero-emission vehicles:
The contract includes the requirement to use low or zero-emission vehicles for collection.
The 25-vehicle vehicle fleet includes 23 trucks fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG) and two electric-powered trucks.
Curbside blue box paid by Recycle BC:
The CRD is paid a fee to oversee the curbside blue box collection program by Recycle BC, a non-profit stewardship organization that represents producers of packaging and paper products in BC.
Residents are not charged any direct fees for this service.
The BC Recycling Regulation requires producers of packaging and paper products in BC to be responsible for the recycling costs associated with the material, not residential taxpayers.
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends looks at socioeconomic and political trends in the news that shapes the lives of people on south Vancouver Island and beyond.
Editor Mary P Brooke has been covering news of the west shore since 2008, and provincially since 2019, through her series of publications: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), and Island Social Trends (since mid-2020).
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