Emterra loses Niagara collection job
Region held back more than $1M in payments over missed pickups
ST. CATHARINES — Niagara will have new garbage collectors on the streets in 2020.
Regional council has selected GFL Environmental Inc. and Miller Waste Systems Inc. as the new waste collection contractors, replacing Emterra, the company that has just taken over recycling collection in Peterborough city and county.
The companies won the contracts for curbside collection, haulage of garbage, recycling and organics and will begin servicing Niagara in the fall of next year.
The region is splitting the new collection contract into two areas: GFL Environmental Inc. will be the contractor in Grimsby, Lincoln, Pelham, Thorold, Wainfleet and West Lincoln.
Miller Waste Systems Inc. will be the contractor for Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Port Colborne, St. Catharines and Welland.
GFL is a Toronto-based company that operates in all Canadian provinces and has more than 8,500 employees.
Miller, based out of Markham, operates more than 850 collection vehicles with more than 1,300 workers.
“Every-other-week garbage collection, coupled with weekly collection of recycling and organics, will help to increase Ni
agara region’s waste diversion rate toward our target of 65 per cent,” said Regional Chair Jim Bradley, in a release.
“Council looks forward to working with GFL Environmental and Miller Waste Systems to provide a high level of customer service for residents.”
Emterra Environment, which is based in Burlington and has more than 1,000 employees, has been collecting the trash and recycling in Niagara for the past seven years, but has struggled to complete collection in recent years.
Since Emterra began blue box pickup in Peterborough Nov. 1, local residents have experienced missed and delayed pickups of recycling. The city advised last week that problems will continue until Nov. 25, citing issues with Emterra’s vehicles. Emterra officials have not responded to requests for comment, and the company’s voice mail is full and no longer accepting messages.
Niagara residents experienced similar issues. By October, Emterra
had completed its entire scheduled trash pickup in Niagara less than half of the time this year. That has resulted in the region holding back more than $1 million in payments to the company for failing to meet its contractual obligations.
Some of that money was used by the Region to hire extra staff to answer complaints on its Waste-Info Line and in some cases, go out and pick up trash Emterra left at the curb.
The Region also took away part of Emterra’s contract for collection in Lincoln and West Lincoln in early January, giving the routes to Canadian Waste Management Inc.
A waste audit of an average Niagara residential garbage bag in 2016 revealed 50 per cent of the material in the bag was organic and could have been diverted through the green bin program.
Another 14 per cent was recyclable and should have been put into the blue or grey box program. Only 36 per cent belonged in the landfill to which it was headed.