City's trash tsar fed up emptying apartment-building dumpsters

If City Council agrees next week, owners of multi-family residential properties with five or more units will have to arrange their own trash pick-up starting in 2021.

Susan Hamilton Beach, director of public works, says the city's contract with Green for Life for this service expires on Dec. 31, 2020, and she doesn't want to renew.

Since 1994, the Ontario government has considered multi-residential buildings to be part of the industrial, commercial and institutional (IC&I) sector, meaning that municipalities have no obligation to pick up their garbage.

Hamilton Beach says no other large municipality in northern Ontario does what Sault Ste. Marie does.

"It should be noted that some municipalities within southern Ontario do provide this service," she says in a report to Mayor Provenzano and city councillors.

"In fact, some leading waste diversion municipalities are opting in to providing waste-collection services to the multi-family sector in order to gain better control of the waste and establish waste management plans with each property to better increase diversion. In general, most municipalities want to remain at arm’s length with the IC&I sector’s waste management issues thus, do not provide this service to the multi-family sector."

Hamilton Beach says waste-management trucks take a legal risk each time they venture onto private property.

"Currently, the city and our contractor may be held liable for any damages and claims that result from entering onto private property. Although the legal department has assisted in the language used on the waiver signed by the owner, the strength of the defence of the document should a claim result is questionable."

"In many cases, these properties have not been designed to city standard (i.e. turning radius, etc.) and thus manoeuvring within the access driveways to the location of the container is often quite challenging and poses a risk to both property (vehicles, buildings) and residents."

Hamilton Beach will seek permission on Monday to give landlords one year's notice of the change so they can make alternative collection arrangements and budget for them.

Cutting service to multi-family residential properties with five or more units will save the city $130,000 a year, she says.

"An increase in landfill revenue may be experienced if this waste is delivered to the city’s landfill site through the private contract. The estimated annual tonnage is 2650 tonnes with the potential associated revenue of approximately $185,000," Hamilton Beach says.

"As these large multi-family buildings are IC&I, the provision of waste collection may best be handled by the owners in a similar manner as the provision of other services such as snow removal, grass cutting on private property, etc."

Monday's City Council will be livestreamed on SooToday starting at 4:30 p.m.