City council has voted to increase the collection frequency of organic waste in Kamloops. It will be transitioning to an annual schedule of weekly organics collection and alternating biweekly garbage and recycling collection.

The report to council states that the change in schedule would allow customers to continue receiving weekly organics collection without impacting their garbage or recycling collection schedules. While the volume of organics collected during the current biweekly collection period is significantly less than the weekly collection period, some customers have expressed a desire to receive weekly organics collection year-round.

Councillor Kelly Hall recalled a number of concerns that people in the community had over the Christmas holiday period in 2023. “We went into this last year not knowing if there’d be any challenges. And there certainly was. I think all of us recall the challenges that last Christmas made. We tried it one way. Why don’t we try it another way? And then at the end of next year, let’s evaluate which is the best way, being that we’re fairly new into this system.”

Councillor Katie Neustaeter echoed those comments. “I do think that the Christmas issue was the most highlighted and sometimes, it was close to a month, not a week, for folks who weren’t getting their items picked up.”

“I would also say we still hear regularly from people who are struggling with the complexity of the schedule. You need a degree in something very specific, to be able to know when your [garbage collection] days are a lot of the time. People miss it all of the time. I think the simplification is a factor. But we also hear from people who don’t have the best storage options, who are struggling with odors, who are struggling with rodent problems, who are struggling with all of these other pieces. Having a smoother system that people understand for what is an almost negligible cost impact, I think is totally reasonable.”

Collecting organics weekly throughout the year would support the continued community request for this important waste diversion measure. The cost of providing this option is almost negligible, with the impact being almost entirely operational. It is anticipated that the additional cost of providing this option would be roughly $30,000–$40,000 per year, which includes the extra fuel required to collect organics weekly (estimated at $30,000–$35,000) and some additional contractual costs ($1,000–$5,000).

There would also be presumed environmental impacts of operating additional collection vehicles to support this schedule. If the Council were to direct this option, staff would not feel a further rate increase is required; however, a communication strategy would need to be developed immediately to notify customers of the change. Fortunately, there would be no negative impacts on customers should they not be aware of the additional collection availability.