Six months in, London’s green-bin use ticks up to 60 per cent

The slow rollout of green bins to apartment and condo buildings in London may seem like cause for concern, but the city says the $15-million program overall is meeting expectations and has the support of the public.

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In a report heading to city council’s civic works committee Tuesday, data shows that the participation rate stands at around 60 per cent, up from 40 per cent in the opening days in January and from 55 per cent several months ago.

That’s about on par with similar size green bin programs in other Ontario cities and regions such as Barrie, Hamilton and Kingston, the report says. The average uptake in cities with similar populations to London is 57 per cent, with the absolute highest rate sitting at 69 per cent.

In addition, calls to Service London have also gone down since the early days of the program, and city-run surveys show that a majority of Londoners are satisfied to varying degrees with the changes brought in including weekly pickup of recycling and compost, and biweekly garbage collection.

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“I would say overall, people are quite positive on the program, but this was an opportunity for them to definitely share where they’ve got some concerns, and that was good to see,” said Jay Stanford, the city’s director of waste management . “People weren’t shy in both praising and things they don’t like.”

However, the $500,000 pilot project to roll out compost bins to 10 multi-unit buildings has got off to a sluggish start, the report says. The pilot launched in late April with two buildings, and has only added one building, and only on a tenant opt-in basis.

Coun. Sam Trosow, one of the committee members, said he’s heard from officials at a number of apartment buildings in his ward who are interested in being part of the pilot and wants to know how the city is working to bring more locations on board.

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“I’d want to get a better sense … what kind of interactions (the city is) having with the property management firms,” he said. “It might be that there’s hesitance on their part, I don’t know why this isn’t going quicker.”

While the first two buildings were located in the outer neighborhoods of the city, the new pilot building at 505 Talbot St. in the city’s core speaks to some of the troubled buildings can face in incorporating the program.

Coun. David Ferreira, who represents downtown on city council, said though residents might be eager to take part in the program, buildings may be physically limited in how much waste they can keep or where they can keep it.

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The report also says 64 townhouse complexes with 2,500 units still don’t have green bin service for the same reason.

“There’s a lot of things operationally that have to be done,” he said. “We just started this, relatively speaking, it is fairly new, and staff have done very well.”

Stanford said the slow uptake is no surprise to city staff because they simultaneously collect data on the progression of the curbside program and any issues that arise with that.

Now that the city has months of data to work with, including from Londoners directly, it can start to address some off the secondary elements of the program, such as the pilot, he said.

“The slowness is actually, it’s us … we just haven’t had as much time and as much of a push to get some of the multi-unit buildings on,” Stanford said. “Just getting ready for this important report was a lot of work to make sure the monitoring is being done and that we have really good information.”

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Stanford said the data collected can also better inform the program. If the pilot is successful, London has about 900 buildings with a collective total of 60,000 units that are eligible for the green bin program.

In the city’s latest four-year budget cycle, $4.7 million was set aside in operating and capital costs to expand the program to other condo and apartment buildings served by city waste collection. The money is intended for two new trucks, and special bins.

Another point for the city to look at in the coming months is a reported increase in illegal dumping that Stanford said might be caused by either less frequent garbage pickup or the new booking system for larger items.

“We’re going to spend more time on that in the next six months, getting a better handle on the amount and the types of materials … so it’s probably one of the downsides,” he said.

The report also recommends staff report back on the feasibility of adding pet waste to the green bin program, and a potential new collection program for diapers and incontinence products.

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