City reviewing options after green cart program halted

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This article was published 23/04/2024 (888 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The decision to put Brandon’s green cart composting program on hold was made last week after the city found out two of its six equipment operators in the sanitation department would be off work for several weeks.

On Monday, Brandon’s general manager of operations, Patrick Pulak, said with the reduced workforce, something had to give between regular garbage pickup, the recycling program, managing recycling depots around the city, operations at the Eastview Landfill and the green cart program.

“I think it’s two to six weeks that we are going to be without these positions,” Pulak said.

In the meantime, the city is considering the possibility of the sanitation department alternating between recycling pickup one week and green cart pickup the next. Pulak said a decision on that front would likely come this week.

“Unfortunately, it’s going to impact our ability to deliver on one of those services. Something we looked at internally was whether or not we could find those positions from other departments. It’s a busy time of the year, though.”

Ultimately, Pulak said the green cart program was put on hold because it will have the least amount of impact on residents. That’s because the program is both voluntary and because residents can still put their organic waste in the black garbage carts without issue.

Pulak said there’s a misconception among the public that fines will be issued for putting organic waste in regular garbage carts, but that’s only the case when contaminated material is placed either in the blue recycling carts or in the green carts.

While the green cart program is on hold, residents can still bring their organic waste to either the landfill or one of the recycling depots around town. All depots except for the one at the Keystone Centre accept organic waste.

According to Pulak, the city realized last year that it needed to revise how it manages its casual labour force and make it more competitive with the private sector in terms of wages.

This year, he said, the city will be hiring more skilled workers than casual workers when it comes to its seasonal workforce.

“It pays a little more and it will give us a little more breathing room when it comes to circumstances like this, where we will have the staff to compensate,” Pulak said.

That might result in fewer people hired, but will involve the same budget and potentially result in more qualified workers applying.

Last year, the city reduced its operating hours at the Eastview Landfill to make sure that certified staff would always be present at the household hazardous depot. This hiring change, Pulak said, could help address that problem as well so the landfill can return to regular hours.

However, Pulak said he didn’t think the new skilled seasonal workers would by hired by the time the equipment operators on leave return to their jobs.

In this year’s budget, councillors approved the creation of a program where the city would help pay for people to take heavy equipment operator courses at Assiniboine Community College in exchange for working for the city after they graduate. Pulak said that program would likely benefit the streets, roads, sewer and water departments more than the sanitation department.

Despite the pause on green cart collection, Pulak said the availability of compost isn’t affected, as it takes time for the organic materials to break down and become usable for that purpose.

“The material that we’re offering for compost at this point was deposited probably a year ago, so there’ll be no impact to that.”

The green cart program has more than 10,000 participating households and diverts more than 2,000 tonnes of waste from the landfill each year.

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