Practice Name: Organics & Recycling Curbside Collection Program
Date Created: 8-June-06
Author:
Maria Crump
Last Updated: 8-June-06
Abstract:
We launched a New Blue Bag Recycling and Organicart Curbside Collection Program in the Town
of Stony Plain to make it easy for residents to join in to divert waste from the landfill.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Name of Practice
Organics & Recycling Curbside Collection
Program
Date
8-June-06
Name of Municipality
Town of Stony Plain
Your Name and Title
Maria Crump, Manager, Economic
Development & Tourism
Phone Number
(780) 963-8578
Fax Number
(780) 963-6548
E-mail for Practice Contact(s)
m.crump@stonyplain.com
Mailing Address
4905 - 51 Avenue
Alberta
T7Z 1Y1
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THE ISSUE
Abstract:
What is the practice you developed or are
developing (brief abstract)?
Please briefly describe the final practice
developed. (e.g. if you developed a new
Council agenda, list the agenda items, or if a
new communications plan was created,
provide a summary of the plan’s goals,
objectives and highlights.)
We launched a New Blue Bag Recycling and
Organicart Curbside Collection Program in the
Town of Stony Plain. To make it easy for
residents to join in to divert waste from the
landfill. Supplying all residents with green
carts for organic waste and initially supplying
residents with blue bags for the recycling. The
Organicarts are collected every week from
April to October, and blue bags including
cardboard & newspaper are collected biweekly. We supplied a package which was
inserted in every cart with a leaflet on the
program, 5 complimentary blue bags to get
started, discount coupons from local retailers
for blue bags, magnets listing acceptable
items. Explanation of the carts and how to use
them. Pull not Push and a Waste Collection
Schedule. We are also launching a New
Recycling Center for The Town of Stony Plain
to compliment the curbside program accepting
organics, cardboard, blue bag and newspaper.
The center will be in a new location to
promote easy access. New signage and
cleaner, more welcoming atmosphere are also
features of the new design.
* To reduce the amount of waste being land
filled, and diminish the long-term cost of
Please describe (just a couple of sentences or waste collection services.*Improve recycling
bullet points) why you needed to create this
services in the town. * Create an atmosphere
practice (policy or process).
where residents are inspired to recycle. Easy
curbside recycling.* This program was
What issue made it necessary? (e.g. “We
initiated by the fact that the current landfills in
needed a comprehensive plan to deal with…”, the area have a limited life span of between 5
or “We needed an annual forecasting tool
and 10 years thus requiring alternative
because…”)
measures to decrease the amount of waste
being taken to these locations.
Need:
CREATING YOUR PRACTICE
Research:
Research was conducted with several
communities focusing on best practices
How did you obtain information to help design initiatives we discovered that communities
your practice (including consultation with
stakeholders, formal and informal research)?
Please include any research documentation
you can share, or give us a source reference
(e.g. Web site, literature, “We reviewed the
bylaws from other municipalities in the
area…”).
Process:
How did you go about designing your
practice? For instance, did you create a team,
hire a consultant, borrow something readymade from another jurisdiction?
Describe briefly who did the design work and
what process they followed.
with the most success diverting waste from the
landfill did so through a composting program,
such as the City of Spruce Grove as our
neighboring municipality. They had launched
the Organic Program 4 years previous with
great success. In November 2004 Council
approved the initiation of a Residential Survey
to determine support for the an enhanced
waste management program. KC
Environmental, who worked with the City of
Spruce Grove, was contracted to conduct the
survey in January 2005. The questionnaire
included the review of current practices, idea
of curbside organics collection and price
brackets of how much a resident would be
willing to pay for the enhanced service.
We struck an internal committee (Waste
Management Program Committee) that
included representatives from Planning &
Infrastructure, Operations, Economic
Development & Tourism, Finance and
Administration & the Town Manager. This
group created an Implementation Plan. We
contracted a graphic artist to create a theme,
artwork and compile all of the
communications material for the program. The
Implementation Plan was formulated using
information from the City of Spruce Grove
and using the consultative services of KC
Environmental. KC was retained for the
communications campaign portion of the
Implementation Plan. The group met every
two weeks between the months of January and
May to monitor progress of the Plan and
trouble-shoot. A Waste Management Program
Assistant was hired to assist in the
implementation and became part of the
internal committee. This position also took on
the responsibility of coordinating aspects of
the communications campaign including
school visits/presentations, contests, tracking
cart delivery, Web site updating and
answering resident queries through the Hotline
number specifically created for the program.
GETTING APPROVAL FOR YOUR PRACTICE
Mayor & Council approved each stage of the
Authority:
process. From the first questionnaire, to the
Whose/what approval did you need to create waste management tender and final
and implement the practice?
agreements.
Reporting:
How did you inform the decision-maker(s)
about the practice and your need for their
approval?
Please note the name of any documents
provided to the decision-makers that you
would be willing to share.
Consultation:
Did you consult with stakeholders as part of
your approval process?
If so, how? If possible, attach a copy of
templates, surveys or other documents you
used as part of your consultation.
IMPLEMENTING YOUR PRACTICE
Plan:
Describe the process you went through to
implement the practice. If you used an
implementation plan, please note it here.
A presentation was given to Council for
approval. The results of the questionnaire were
shared first through an agenda item seeking
approval to initiate a tender process for waste
services. A final report including tender results
and a recommendation were presented to
Council in a PowerPoint format. Details on the
financial impact of the program with a
recommendation on awarding the tender were
provided in one agenda item. A
recommendation to contract KC
Environmental for the communication
campaign portion was presented under a
separate agenda item. These two items were
combined to give an overall picture to Council
of the entire program and recommended
process. Copies of the agenda items,
resolutions and PowerPoint presentation are
available.
Key stakeholders included residents, Council,
and Senior Administration. Residents were
consulted through the Residential Survey. The
Waste Management Committee met every two
weeks to review the implementation plan and
trouble shoot. In addition an update was
provided to Senior Administration during their
weekly meetings and two presentations were
given to Council during the process to keep
them informed of the progress.
A Residential Survey was initiated in
November 2004. The results stated that over
71% of residents surveyed were in favor of
enhancing the waste management program and
the majority indicated that a rate increase in
the amount of $1 - $3/month would be
acceptable. A report to Council was developed
and presented recommending the
implementation the organic collection
program in April 2005 with the current waste
service contractor, however the rate increase
was outside the $1 - $3 range and was
therefore defeated by Council. The current
contract with our waste service provider was
due to expire in March of 2006 Administration
initiated the tender process in October of
2005. The tender process was completed in
November and the recommendation to award
the tender was reviewed and approved by
Council in December of 2005. The new
agreement would give residents a three stream
curbside service or organics, recycling and
waste collection, plus an Organicart and a new
Recycling Center for an increase of
$2.99/month for waste services.
Policy:
What changes to bylaws, regulations or
procedures were needed to implement this
practice and how did you deal with them?
The Town's Garbage Bylaw changed to allow
an additional waste collection for organics
including guidelines for excess garden waste
that if bundled would be collected curbside.
Please attach a copy of the change in bylaw,
policy or procedure.
There were various phases to the program
implementation. The attached Implementation
When did your municipality begin to use the Plan outlines the deadline dates for the
practice? Was it implemented all at once or in different stages of the program. The hotline
stages?
number was set up in March 2006 to coincide
with the first print information sent to
residents about the program. We launched the
Blue Bag & Organicart Program on April 15th
2006. We Started the curbside program on the
same week, with 3 trucks on route to collect
the different streams of waste. Previous to the
launch we visited local schools to conduct
presentations with the Mayor. We also
followed with school poster contest, and
announced the winners in the local paper. At
the Tri Municipal Trade show the Town's
booth theme was the new Curbside program
including contests and games to get kids
involved in the display. We have attempted to
keep the program at the forefront after the
When:
launch by running other contests over the
summer months and into the fall season. These
include: Caught with the Cart and Bagged
with the Blue Bag where we randomly select a
residence and inspect their Organicart and
blue bag on collection day to ensure they have
the acceptable items in each at curbside. In
addition we placed temporary signs around
town to let residents know the program was
coming as well as putting in weekly
advertisements in the local paper to increase
awareness. We delivered the carts 2 weeks
prior to the collections starting.
Who:
Who was responsible for implementing the
practice?
If someone else is responsible for ongoing
management, who is it?
Maria Crump, Manager Economic
Development & Tourism implemented the
program, with a Waste Management
Committee to meet every two weeks to speak
about any issues that may arise. In addition a
part time staff member was taken on for a 6
month contract to assist with the
communications component of the program
including school presentations, coordinating
advertisements, updating our Web site,
brochures, and the Hotline number to answer
questions and concerns of residents. The
program will be passed to Public
Works/Operations who will manager the
contract and oversee the Recycling Center.
RESOURCES REQUIRED
Budget:
The budget was approved for $325,000.
$20,000 for the Public Awareness Program
How much did it cost you to design and
which included KC Environmental consulting
implement your practice (i.e. We saved/spent fee, where they organized the residential
$XX per year)?
survey, school presentations, and cart delivery.
On-going costs include the communications
What are your ongoing operational and capital campaign which we will implement each year
costs, if any?
at an estimated cost of $4,000 and ordering
additional carts to compliment new residential
development estimated at $7,000.
We employed one new member of staff on a 6
month contract to answer the Hotline number
What human resources did you need to design, and launch the program. Budget of $13,500.
implement and manage your practice? (e.g. “It The staff member worked in launching the
Staff:
took X staff member(s) X months on this” or
“This is part of normal staff duties.”)
program from dealing with all questions,
concerns and collections to organizing school
presentations awards, poster contest, compost
fundraiser and now Organicart and Blue Bag
contests for residents to win prizes. This
individual also organized photo opportunities
with the Mayor and local papers. One manager
oversaw the implementation plan and program
launch. The Waste Management Committee
aided in the implementation of the program
and assisted with decisions along the way.
The only capital costs we faced were the
Organicarts, where it was borrowed from the
What “capital costs” (such as information
Town's own reserves. Of the $2.99 increase
technology,other equipment or building assets) per month, per household, $0.90 is allocated to
did you need to design, implement, manage,
repayment for the Organicarts amortized over
and/or evaluate your practice?
10 years.
Infrastructure:
EVALUATING YOUR PRACTICE
Formal:
We have only been running our program since
April 06 and have not conducted a formal
If you did a formal evaluation (e.g. user
evaluation at this point. We have received
satisfaction survey, analysis of annual
positive responses from residents through the
expenditures or number of rate payers served) Hotline number and through comments shared
for your practice, please describe the
with our Town Council members both before
evaluation tool and the process used.
and after the program launch. There have been
a few articles in the local paper also praising
Tell us who was involved.
the implementation of the program. These are
attached. We have been observing the amount
of waste diverted from the landfill. Organic
waste from April 15th - 30th was 36 tonnes
from the curbside and 40 Tonnes from our
organic bin at the Recycling Center. Blue Bag
curbside recycling on a bi weekly basis is 17.5
tonnes and at the Recycling Center 2 tonnes
per week for the blue bag bin and 5 tonnes per
week for the newspaper bin. Evergreen
Ecological Services, our waste service
contractor, updates us on our progress with
tonnage for recyclables and conventional
waste. KC Environmental, through their
Cleanit Greenit Composting Site, updates us
on the tonnage for the organic waste.
Informal:
If you did an informal evaluation, describe
what you did (such as discussing the practice
with people in the office or on the street, or
letters/comments received).
We keep a log of all calls, complaint and
missed collections on a spreadsheet to
evaluate how the process is going. This helps
us to highlight any problem areas like missed
collections or timing of collections and areas
that need to be improved. Also logging all
calls made our Web site more efficient with
the Frequently Asked Questions updated and
new information always being attached to help
the public.
We measure the service on a spreadsheet of all
calls from complaint and questions on the
Please list the performance measures for this program. Our efficiency increases as we
practice (i.e. reduced number of complaints,
continue and we use the frequently asked
money saved, or change in equipment life
questions to highlight any problem issues. We
expectancy.)
have put all days, weeks and monthly figures
on a spreadsheet to see where the problem
Please list the process you used for measuring days are for collections and when there are
performance, (i.e. We do annual surveys on…) heavier workloads in an effort to decrease
examples include:
missed collections. We also make a note of
tonnage per month and per week to make sure
 collecting data
the program will be a success. If our figures
 establishing a baseline
should not keep increasing we would promote
 applying the measures
more communication to the residents, but at
 results
the moment all figures are increasing on
 follow up
recycling and organics and calls have slowed,
from 80 or more calls per day to 20-30 calls
per day.
Performance measures:
Changes:
(a) Based on the evaluation (formal or
informal), describe any changes you have
made, or would like to make, to your practice
as a result. (e.g. “After implementing this
practice, we decided that it would be better
if…”)
-or(b) Has your practice met your expectations
and if so, how?
Some ideas we should have looked into more,
would be the blue box instead of blue bag, the
main issues with the bag were cost to people
buying plastics bags. Another idea was to
create a calendar that went to each resident
identifying the first collection days of
Organics and Blue bag and marking which
week would be blue bag week as it’s a biweekly collection. After implementing the
program we realized we should have put more
detail out to residents regarding plastics, as it
is the most common recyclable in the home
and our breakdown was to loose to explain
what would be accepted and what not. One
more hurdle we had to deal with was the
Condominium Associations, where most
organicarts have been returned as they do not
cut their own grass and have restrictions that
they cannot leave carts (garbage) curbside.
The program has met expectations, with the
usage proving high and both programs running
smoothly already...The blue bag program is
very popular, as it requires no sorting and
newspapers and cardboard collected curbside.
LESSONS LEARNED / BENEFITS RECEIVED
Minimizing the waste going to landfill.
Benefits:
Making all residents aware of Recycling, be it
What are the benefits of this practice to your Blue Bag or Organics. Improving the service
municipality? (eg. Preparation of Council
to residents. Making it easy to be eco-friendly,
agenda packages now requires less time, etc.) having 3 services at your door step.
We should have spent time
on:Condominiums- Contacted them before the
What key lessons have you/your municipality program to determine how best to include
learned through the process of:
them in the program. Design a more detailed
literature to go out, with regards to plastics
 designing;
that are acceptable. Surprised by the confusion
 obtaining approval;
of people not aware of the difference in
 implementing; and
collections. For Example: - thinks that blue
 evaluating your practice?
bag has to be put in the organicart. The arrival
of the Organicarts was sporadic. It was
Include any problems, surprises, and
unanticipated benefits. (e.g. “We realized that anticipated the carts would arrive
simultaneously over a two-day period enabling
we needed to spend more time…”)
assembly and delivery to be completed within
five days. The carts arrived at different times
and dates over a weeklong period resulting in
cart delivery occurring over a two-week
period.
Key Lessons:
Communication was the key to this program.
You could never give to much information to
What advice would you give to another
the public. Research of best practices was also
municipality that is considering adopting your important and we benefited from the
practice? Is there anything you might have
experiences of our neighboring municipality
done differently?
the City of Spruce Grove. One thing we would
have done differently was to get all the
acceptable plastic items listed in detail first
from the contractor before promoting. A lot of
issues arose regarding what plastics that were
accepted.
Advice to Municipal Peers:
PRACTICE UPDATES
Since the first door hanger went out with
information, we have sent out a Waste
There may be some new information to add
Collection Program leaflet with calendar,
since this practice was first posted. This is
Recycling Center information, updated
especially true if:
acceptable plastics list, clarification on
collection time and promoting the hotline
 a new process has been implemented in
number again. We have started promoting
your municipality;
 there are new practice evaluation results; or Caught with the Cart and Bagged with the
Blue Bag which is a contest to encourage
 there has been a change affecting
organizational direction. For example, explain residents to ensure they are correctly sorting
items. Constantly updating spreadsheets for
how new economic conditions or a new
missed collection and calls received to
vision/strategy affect the practice.
eliminate problems and keep the Web site up
to date with frequently asked questions.
Please indicate those changes here. Don't
forget to list any new documents that may be
useful to your peers. Then go to "Other
Information" to attach the new documents.
New Information:
OTHER INFORMATION
Suggestions:
Please list relevant information sources that
others might use or you would be willing to
share (courses, Web sites, literature, experts).
Documents & Attachments:
KC Environmental were a great resource. Ever
Green Ecological Services also provided good
information on the recycling process.
Press Release Photo
Newspaper Clipping 1
Please attach (using the "Browse" button
below) any documents you would be willing
to share with others interested in your practice
(e.g. a bylaw, a policy, approval documents,
templates).
Newspaper Clipping 2
Utility Mailing Brochure
Blue Bag Brochure
Blue Bag Magnets
Coming Soon Door Hanger
Did You Know Ads
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good way of doing things.
COMMENTS
Have we missed something; anything you’d
like to add to the areas we have touched on, or
an area we have not mentioned?