Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board directors voted to more than double the tipping fee for appliances containing ammonia from $30 to $80, as the SCRD prepares to amend the landfill site bylaw.
At the infrastructure services committee on June 10, directors also voted to increase fees for tires with rims removed and tires on rim, and to begin accepting tires filled with foam.
The SCRD is pursuing participating in the Major Appliances Recycling Roundtable (MARR) which accepts major appliances at no charge, but does not include appliances containing ammonia, so a tipping fee would still be required.
The $80 tipping fee per unit covers the direct costs of appliances containing ammonia. Appliances must have any ammonia removed by a specialized contractor. At a previous meeting in May, manager of solid waste Robyn Cooper told directors that ammonia is extremely hazardous to humans.
The Gibsons Recycling Depot is already a member of MARR and will accept appliances containing freon free of charge, whereas a $25 tipping fee applies at SCRD facilities. Staff inform residents using the Sechelt Landfill and Pender Harbour waste transfer station that the Gibsons Recycling Depot will accept their non-ammonia appliances at no charge.
Pender Harbour director Leonard Lee asked if it would be cheaper to haul the appliances dropped off in Sechelt and Pender Harbour to the Gibsons Recycling Depot without remediation for ammonia, but Cooper said it’s a staff safety concern.
Sechelt director Alton Toth raised previous concerns about illegal dumping and said there are other jurisdictions with landfills that take refrigerant appliances for free in order to make sure they are taken care of properly and in an environmentally secure manner. He said he would be in favour of keeping the tipping fee as is, “to try and encourage people to be bringing these things in responsibly for recycling if we couldn’t go all the way to free.”
The majority of directors were in favour of increasing the tipping for appliances with ammonia. Lee, Toth and Elphinstone director Donna McMahon were opposed.
Tires
Off-rim tires from passenger vehicles and medium trucks are currently accepted for free at multiple locations on the Sunshine Coast, by businesses participating in the Tire Stewardship BC Program. While several options were presented, staff recommended increasing the tipping fee to incentivize people to use the program, which allows free drop-off of four tires per person per day.
Only the Sechelt directors, Darnelda Siegers and Toth, voted in favour of no longer accepting tires with their rims removed. Other directors cited concerns of the impact to customer service by turning people away. Roberts Creek director Andreas Tize said, “If they want to pay for it, let them pay for it.”
Directors voted in favour of increasing the tire tipping fees, with West Howe Sound director Mark Hiltz opposed. Cooper explained the additional charge between off-rim and on-rim tires is to cover the removal of rims.
Changes to tire tipping fees include:
• Passenger tire with rim removed increases from $3 to $5 per tire.
• Passenger tire on rim increases from $8 to $10 per tire.
• Medium truck tire with rim removed increases from $18 to $20 per tire.
• Medium truck tire on rim increases $36 to $42 per tire.
Tires filled with foam accepted at the Sechelt Landfill only for $18 per tire.
Accepting tires with foam will be a new service for the SCRD, and only available at the Sechelt Landfill.
“Given the Sunshine Coast is a coastal community and there are requests from the public to accept tires filled with foam, staff recommend accepting them at Sechelt Landfill only, as part of Tire Stewardship BC, even if this option is temporary, as opposed to not accepting them at all,” the SCRD staff report from May 13 said.
Tires filled with foam are not recycled, and the SCRD is not permitted to bury them.
Toth moved the motion, and said, “They’re garbage and we should accept them as garbage.”
