The Town of Hay River is about to see a significant shift in their waste collection methods.
Due to some changes being made to the community’s Waste Management Bylaw and the Fees and Charges Bylaw, Hay River will be implementing a Curbside Cart program for waste collection, and is also looking into the development of a Solid Waste Facility. To help explain all of the changes being made, the Town will be holding a public information session at the Hay River Community Centre on Wednesday, March 19th at 7:00pm.
Glenn Smith, the Senior Administrative Officer with the Town of Hay River, explained that in addition to the new Curbside Cart program, the Information Session will also be discussing the introduction of Solid Waste Processing Levies that will be introduced around the same time.
“The Curbside Cart portion of the presentation will just be giving out information on the new carts we will be rolling out for residential waste collection. It’s part of an automated system for collection of waste. We’ll be rolling it out with just one standardized two-hundred-forty litre bin that will be used for general household garbage.”
Smith added that the Town will eventually work their way towards a three-cart program which will include separate carts for recyclables and organics. The progression of that program will depend on the successful introduction of the new Solid Waste Facility.
The bins will be delivered to residential properties in the next few weeks, with a set goal of having the program running around April 15th. The carts are designed to work with the waste collection trucks that are currently operated by Hay River Disposals, but privately owned bins or installed boxes will not be collected. Due to the automated nature of the trucks, all waste must be able to fit inside the bins. Any waste left beside the bins will not be collected.
Smith shared why Hay River decided to make these changes.
“Part of it is cost saving, but it is really tied to advancing our solid waste management processes from where they are now to where they can hopefully be in the future, hopefully brought together through a new Solid Waste Facility, and modernized processes for collection and disposal of waste.
“You can’t make all of these changes at once. It would be a huge culture change. There’s a lot of collection of data and testing and discussions that need to happen, but we thought it would be prudent to introduce a first step in the collection process.”
Hay River has also introduced a new series of waste processing levies that will now appear on residents’ monthly utility bills starting on April 1st. These levies will be used to help cover the costs of these new programs. Smith explained that locals shouldn’t expect too much of a change in prices, and that the municipal government is trying to be more transparent by presenting the fee on a monthly utility bill. Hay River is also hoping that this transparency will promote better understanding and decision making across the community.
