Burlington Council Approves Staff Recommendation to Implement 3-Week Loose Leaf Collection Program As 2-Year Pilot Ends
At our March 22 Council meeting, we unanimously approved the staff recommendation to implement a three-week Loose Leaf Collection Program at the close of the two-year pilot.The primary service for leaf disposal throughout the City of Burlington is provided through the Region of Halton’s bagged yard waste pickup program, with bi-weekly collections scheduled from April to mid-December. The City also provides a loose leaf collection service that supplements the regional service, and was originally put in place to help residents in areas where leaf drop volumes are very high, and where it would not be convenient to bag/collect through the Region's yard waste collection service.A reduced loose leaf collection program was piloted for the 2020 and 2021 collection years and were scheduled over a four-week period and was restricted to a single pickup to select areas of the city. The pilot was designed to mitigate service delivery risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and to reduce program costs.In general terms, collection operations for each year of the pilot went well. About an average of 4,400 tonnes of leaves were collected per year in 2020 and 2021 -- this is understandably less than the average of 5,500 tonnes of leaves collected when two pickups were scheduled. It should be noted that leaf collection volumes are approximate and will vary annually subject to seasonal growing conditions.The program costs for 2020 and 2021 average around $650,000 per season. Before the pilot, the annual program budget was $835,000 with a five-year average for actual costs of $730,000. These results confirm one of the pilot’s objectives of reducing the program's costs.When looking at mitigating service delivery impacts, reducing the number of scheduled pickups has reduced the risk of not completing the program or significant changes to the pickup schedule due to unexpected weather, parked vehicles blocking the pickup path, etc. Ultimately, the successful completion of the program every year is subject to how early winter weather hits and how severe it is during the program period.Challenges to the program include:
- Incorrect Placement/Contamination of Piles
- Parked Cars
- Inclement Weather
- Winter Maintenance
- Staff Availability
- Storage and Disposal
For more on each of the challenges, please click the link to the staff report found at the bottom of this post.Here is the motion that was unanimously approved at Council:
Direct the Director of Roads, Parks and Forestry to implement a three-week Loose Leaf Collection Program as outlined in option 2 in roads, parks and forestry department report RPF-02-22.
OPTION 2 - THREE-WEEK COLLECTION PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:
- Defers the start of the collection period by one week to better align with the timing of when leaves typically drop. This will increase the ability of residents to take advantage of the City's collection service;
- Potential to reduce customer dissatisfaction with the program, but comes with additional resourcing/budget requirements to accommodate the compressed schedule and increased collection volumes;
- The Zone Map (Appendix A to RPF-02-22 - 3-week program collection map) has been adjusted to better align with higher tree-density areas in the city, with collection in these areas occurring later in the program timeline;
- Further zone adjustments will occur as necessary and in alignment with data from the upcoming Urban Forest Master Plan Update;
- Implementing this option does require the increased use of contract services through the addition of one collection crew at an approximate cost of $50,000;
- 2022 Leaf Collection Budget ($720,000) -- there is an estimated annual savings of $20,000 with this option totaling to an operating budget of $700,000;
- Additional resources will include a full collection crew -- vacuum with truck, operator and rakers;
- Haulage for the time being will be internal resources -- staff will review this after a couple of years of data is collected to analyze; and
- The additional week of work recovered in this option will be used for additional non-winter maintenance activities and winter training of operators.
MY TAKE:We've seen our City staff problem-solve and be customer-oriented with this pilot program and we love to see that -- that level of creativity and innovation to help deliver the most efficient and beneficial program to our residents. Staff have really tried to respond to the issues we've heard and the community feedback has really shaped this program. I want to thank our Roads, Parks and Forestry (RPF) staff for all their hard work on this.RELATED LINKS:
- Committee Meeting Minutes: Post-Meeting Minutes - EICS_Mar03_2022
- Council Meeting Minutes: Post-Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting of Council_Mar22_2022
- Staff report: RPF-02-22 - Loose Leaf Collection Pilot Evaluation and Program Options
- Appendices:
- Presentation: