Image Credit: Shutterstock
December 03, 2015 - 6:30 PM
KAMLOOPS – The cost of processing the material collected in the Kamloops recycling program is going up and that cost is being passed onto homeowners in the city.
Residents will be paying roughly $17 more per year in recycling fees in the New Year. The city is citing the recently renewed recycling contract with Emterra Environmental as the reason for the increase.
Effective Jan. 1, 2016, the company will be charging the city $845,000 annually, up from $460,000.
Emterra spokesperson John Douglas says a jump in the cost of processing recycled material from $92 per metric tonne to $169 is the new cost of doing business.
“Emterra’s bid reflects the true cost of local operations and the international demand and pricing of recycled material,” Douglas says.
He says the cost of processing recycled materials is now a commodity that is traded on a world market similar to oil and gold, adding prices are subject to fluctuation like any other product or service.
The city received one other bid for the recycle sorting contract, but public works director Jen Fretz says proposal from Cascades Recovery Inc. was too expensive and did not meet the city’s needs.
Emterra did not cite a newly negotiated employee agreement as a factor for the increased cost of its contract with the city. The Emterra employees negotiated a new four-year contract with a roughly 22.5 per cent salary increase over the term of the deal.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015