Greater Trail residents won’t have curbside composting before May 2023.
Although the program was originally expected to kick off this fall, the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary says supply chain problems mean they won’t be able to get going before next year.
Chair Linda Worley says the 8,300 household bins required won’t arrive any sooner.
“With that number of bins to be provided by a manufacturer, there’s going to be a delay getting them out to folks,” she says.
Worley says they want to launch the entire program at once, rather than providing the pick-up service to some communities ahead of others.
“This program will be initiated across [Greater Trail],” she says. “If everybody starts together, everybody can get used to it, questions can be asked, and it can be a clean transition.”
In the meantime, Worley says the RDKB will push ahead with a public education program, teaching people what they can or can’t put in the bins.
Although the province is picking up $700,000 of the $1.05 million cost of the project, Worley says the RDKB has pushed its portion to the 2023 budget, so taxpayers will not be on the hook for those costs this year.
She says they also expect upgrades at the McKelvey Creek landfill, which are in part to allow it to serve as a transfer station for organic materials, will bedelayed by supply chain issues.
The RDKB is currently in the midst of a counterpetition process to determine whether they will pay for those upgrades through short-term or long-term borrowing.
A green bin collection program has been in place for several years for 5,900 households in the Boundary.
However, the Regional District of Central Kootenay says it doesn’t expect any delays with rolling out a similar organics program this year.
They say a compost facility in Creston is mostly completed and will beginning operating in May. Spokesman Dan Elliott says the Town of Creston has already procured green bins and their providers have committed to delivery in time for program launch.
A compost facility will be built near Salmo this spring and summer and should begin operating in the fall. Additional infrastructure will be built at the Ootischenia landfill to serve Castlegar’s intended curbside program launch in the fall.
