An expansion of the household and electronic waste depot is being proposed in Prince Edward County.
Quinte Waste Solutions Operations Coordinator Ron Rae along with Transition Manager Dan Miller made a presentation during Tuesday night’s regular council meeting.
They are proposing the household and electronic waste (HEW) program be expanded in the municipality in a permanent form.
Currently, residents in the County see four mobile events a year, plus have the option of travelling to Belleville to the depot there.
Last year, the HEW program took in 384 tonnes of material while serving 13,384 residents. This included closing down for the full month of January, three days in February and holding no mobile events until June.
Rae noted funding is moving away from mobile events and more towards physical collection sites and said if there is a consistent site open, people will go.
Quinte Waste Solutions is looking at what they call the medium option, with a light option being the mobile events and a heavy option being a depot similar to Belleville.
Rae says the medium option gives the County the option to grow in size or reduce.
The shift from mobile events to a permanent location would mean residents would have access to the HEW depot for 420 hours if the site were to be open from May to September, compared to 36 hours with the four mobile events.
If staff and Quinte Waste Solutions were to find an appropriate site, the approximate startup cost of $61,000 would be undertaken by Quinte Waste Solutions.
A site has not been discussed as of yet, but Councillor Janice Maynard noted if the depot were to be in Picton, some residents would still choose not to travel there.
Miller said they know some residents in the northern part of the county will travel to Belleville to the depot there instead, but residents would be better served with a depot than the four mobile events.
Quinte Waste Solutions believes the proposed option will provide a greatly improved level of service, contribute to local waste diversion efforts and provide a base for a customized program in the County into the future.
While not against the proposal, Councillor Phil St-Jean was curious what the impact of the electronic waste collection by QWS would mean for local service clubs that collect e-waste as a fundraiser.
Rae said this operation is very scaleable and if council elects that QWS not collect e-waste at the depot, they won’t. He said the depot would be the County’s stop gap as they do not intend to take money away from charities or service clubs.
