Recycling bylaws approved in Sparwood
Sparwood council has approved the bylaw changes needed to launch its new district wide curbside recycling program and move ahead with a food waste diversion pilot this spring.
At the March 17 council meeting, Manager of Corporate Services Megan Rawles said the amendments were needed to support the curbside recycling program beginning the week of April 6 and the food cycler pilot expected to begin later in April.
Rawles said the curbside program will operate at a fixed rate of $250.56 per household annually for five years following council’s earlier approval to amend the waste management contract and establish an agreement with Recycle BC.
She said the changes to the Utility and Solid Waste Management Bylaw will align district definitions with Recycle BC requirements, authorize district owned recycle carts assigned to individual addresses and set standards for accepted materials, cleanliness and contamination control.
The bylaw also gives the district tools to deal with repeated contamination.
Rawles said the enforcement model includes refused collection, cart tagging with educational information and escalating compliance measures for repeated or serious non-compliance.
“The amendment bylaw also introduces graduated compliance tools to address contamination, including refused collection, cart tagging with education, and escalated enforcement measures for repeated or serious non-compliance,” she said.
In addition, the bylaw authorizes the Food Cycler Pilot Program, under which selected participants will pick up units in mid to late April, track their use for 12 weeks and complete a survey. Rawles said the units will remain district property unless later transferred to the participant at replacement cost.
The changes also include some housekeeping work, including correcting an error in the 2028 collection rates and removing fees that are no longer applicable.
A second bylaw amends the district’s bylaw enforcement notice system to add fines tied specifically to recycling violations.
Councillor Jason Christensen supported the overall direction but voiced concern about how aggressively the new enforcement tools might be used in the early stages of the program.
“I would hope that when we start implementing this, that we are showing pretty good patience as people learn this process,” Christensen said.
He added that he did not want to see the district quickly move to “tax people into compliance or penalize people into compliance, especially financially.”
Council then gave first, second and third reading to both bylaws.
Christensen voted against both motions, but the bylaws still carried.
The decisions put the legal framework in place for one of the district’s biggest service changes in years as Sparwood prepares to begin regular curbside recycling collection and test a new approach to reducing household food waste.