City eyes roadside organics pickup with $7.4M grant

The city could have curbside pickup of organic kitchen waste in about 18 months, thanks to a new $7.4-million grant from the provincial government.

The city is getting $7,461,250 from the proceeds of the provincial government’s cap-and-trade program.

It’s meant to cover about half the cost of a $15-million plan to build a new organic waste processing plant (for both kitchen organics and yard waste), plus a fleet of trucks and new kitchenwaste bins for every house in Peterborough.

Right now the city’s leaves and yard waste are trucked to Belleville for lack of a local processing plant, and there’s no curbside pickup of organic kitchen waste.

To cover the rest of the $15-million cost of the plan, city staff proposes to use a combination of public and private money.

The city was expected to set aside money for the next few years to build its own processing plant for organics, so that plan was already in place.

Meanwhile staff has found a private partner willing to offer the land, expertise and private money to make it work: Triland Hauling and Excavation, on Keene Rd.

On Monday at City Hall, councillors will review the proposal for the first time.

But the new curbside pickup of organics wouldn’t start until September 2019, the staff report states, because it will take time to plan and build the new processing plant as well as buy new trucks and run an awareness campaign for citizens.

The partnership with Triland has been in the works since late last year, when the city started looking for a potential partner.

Staff recommended then that council deal with Triland, the only firm that met the city’s criteria (ie: the city wanted to deal with a local company that already processes both kitchen organics and yard waste)

Councillors will vote on Monday to accept the money from the province and also to order a follow-up staff report with more detail about the prospective agreement with Triland (including all costs).

On Monday there will also be a chance for council to vote a final time on that in a special fiveminute city council meeting (the province wants the city to sign an agreement as soon as possible to accept the money).

It all starts at 5:15 p.m. at City Hall on Monday.