Laidlaw Wins Winnipeg Recycling Contract

This is the second time that Winnipeg has tried a citywide curbside recycling program. About five years ago, Winnipeg City Council voted to fund a nonprofit group to operate a curbside collection program on an interim basis. After the funding period lapsed, council members, dissatisfied with the results, refused to extend more funding and the field was left open. Subsequently, several private sector recycling companies sprang up to fill the gap.

The three private sector companies have made their money by charging homeowners $5 to $6 per month to collect recyclables. Although they have filled a need, these companies’ scope is somewhat limited.

"The private companies have about 25,000 customers in the city," says Dwight Gibson, manager of solid waste for Winnipeg. "We hope to reach 180,000 households through our program."

The new program is an expansion of a depot system the city has been experimenting with for three years. But the six depots have only collected three types of materials, and Laidlaw will be picking up 13. These include newspapers, magazines, mixed household paper, boxboard, corrugated cardboard, glass, steel, aluminum, polyethylene terephthalate plastic, polycoated containers, high-density polyethylene, polystyrene and plastic shopping bags.

The pickup service will be free to householders, and the city will pay Laidlaw $111 per ton of materials. This will be offset by revenues, which Laidlaw will turn over to the city, from the sale of materials. The initial funding is being provided by the provincial government’s two cent levy on all beverage containers sold in the province.

The levy was introduced January 1, 1995, to pay for municipal recycling programs.

Although it is anticipated that revenues from the sale of the recycled materials will cover all costs of the program, the provincial government is prepared to make up 80 percent of any shortfall, with the city responsible for the remaining 20 percent.

Gibson reports that 60,000 recycling bins were distributed in September, with another 115,000 to be distributed in early January when new recycling trucks arrive.

The private recycling firms had formed a consortium with Browning Ferris Industries Ltd. to bid on the contract, but Laidlaw’s bid came in $22.8 million lower.

Gibson predicts that the private recycling firms will phase themselves out before long. He anticipates that Laidlaw will hire some of the 80 or 90 people who will lose their jobs if the private recyclers close.