Editor's note: The changes in waste collection at the county level will not affect residents of the City of Barrie. However, people who live in towns and townships outside the city limits will be affected.
With changes coming to waste collection in Simcoe County, council is already preparing for ways to handle additional capacity.
While council eagerly awaits the outcome for the next waste-collection contract, preparations are underway to make sure the county's existing waste transfer stations are ready for the extra garbage, recycling and organics they’ll be receiving to ensure a smooth transition.
At Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, county councillors voted to approve funding for staff to start the design process to upgrade three transfer facilities in support of bi-weekly collection.
The three facilities would be built at the North Simcoe Transfer Station, Nottawasaga Landfill and Bradford Transfer Station.
The Environmental Resource Recovery Centre (ERRC), planned to be built on Horseshoe Valley Road, has also been identified as a future waste-transfer site.
About $185,000 would be transferred from reserves for the design of the new transfer stations.
“They take the smaller, curb-side trucks, allows them to offload into full-size trucks which would deliver the material,” said director of solid waste management Rob McCullough, adding county waste is currently being trucked from the county down to Niagara Region.
“That can only be done efficiently and effectively by the larger trucks,” he said.
With collection switching to biweekly, McCullough says the trucks will now fill up twice as fast, so the need for transfer stations will become much greater.
As the new collection contract starts November 2021, the new waste transfer stations would have to be built and operational by that time, which is why it’s necessary to get plans underway immediately.
“We need to have those facilities up and running by the start of that new contract,” he said.
Currently, the waste transfer station being used for county waste is run by contractor Waste Connections, which comes at a “significant expense” to the county, said McCullough.
“We feel we can do it more cost-effectively,” he said.
The new buildings will include several large access doors on the front for curbside collection trucks to unload, a large access door on each side of the building to load tractor-trailers and three bunkers inside to separate garbage, organics and recycling. Building design will include any necessary fire suppression systems, ventilation, grading and drainage systems.
Approval will enable county staff to prepare the applications required by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks in anticipation for construction in 2021.
The committee voted in favour of the motion, which will need to be ratified at the next meeting of council on Feb. 11.
