STAFF REPORT

November 1, 1999

To: North York Community Council

From: Angelos Bacopoulos, General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services

Subject: Solid Waste Management Service Level Changes in the North York Community

Wards 6-12

Purpose:

To report on numerous issues raised by North York Community Council having received a verbal update from the Director, Solid Waste Collections, Districts 3 and 4, respecting service level changes in the North York District.

Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

Due to the short time constraints placed on the preparation of this report verification of financial estimates contained herein by the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer was not possible.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that this report be received for the information of North York Community Council.

Background:

Toronto Council at its meeting of April 26-28, 1999 approved the harmonization of solid waste service levels.

Changes in the North York Community service levels commenced on June 1, 1999 with the introduction of once every second week yard waste collection, June through September, and weekly service April through May and October through November. This service more appropriately reflects the low volume of yard waste generated during the summer months and provides a higher level of service during the spring growing season and fall clean up months. Previously, North York had reversed this schedule due to difficulties in maintaining a weekly collection schedule for the removal of leaves in the fall. In fact, the collection calendar stated "if your yard waste is not collected on your designated Wednesday, please leave it out for collection on Thursday, Friday or Saturday."

Weekly garbage collection and once every two weeks recycling commenced on September 1, 1999. This service level is consistent with that provided to all of the former municipalities now comprising Toronto. With the exception of North York and a small section of the former Toronto, which receives twice weekly garbage collection in the summer months, this service level has been in place for many years and has proven to operate successfully.

At its meeting of October 12, 1999 North York Community Council requested and received a verbal update from the Director, Solid Waste Collections, Districts 3 and 4, respecting the implementation of the aforementioned service level changes. Following the update, Community Council requested Mr. Angelos Bacopoulos, General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services Division to attend the next meeting of the North York Community Council and to review and provide a report on the following:

(1) the number of routes completed and not completed on a weekly basis during September and October, 1999;

(2) the volume of waste, yard waste, household and recycling, from single family homes by district and route for September 1998 and 1999 and October 1998 and 1999; such report to include the number of households served per route prior to once a week collection and the number of households now served by district and routes;

(3) respond to North York Community Council on the Solid Waste Department's proposed action from the directions of the Budget Committee and Council regarding the former City of North York area continuing to receive twice per week summer garbage pick-up; and this service being expanded across the entire City of Toronto, prior to a report on this issue being submitted to the Works Committee;

(4) the cost to increase the level of recycling pick-up to weekly throughout the entire City of Toronto, by district;

(5) the number of complaints by route and the nature of the complaints received by the Works and Emergency Services Department, including the North York Civic Centre regarding yard waste, garbage and recycling pick-up this year;

(6) the tonnage of waste collected monthly, by routes in the North York District in 1999;

(7) what staff and vehicles have been reduced in the North York District; and

(8) the savings realized by reducing staff for waste collection from twice per week to once per week and from reducing recycling pick-up from weekly to bi-weekly.

Comments:

Each section contained within the "comment" section of the report has been numbered to correspond with the appropriate request from Community Council.

(1) Table 1, attached hereto, summarizes the number of collections by product per week during the months of September and October 1999 in the North York District. A breakdown has been provided to illustrate routes completed during regular working hours, routes requiring overtime to complete on the scheduled collection day and routes not completed on the scheduled collection day. In summary, a total of 1,851 routes were completed during the study period. Of this total 199 or 10.7% required overtime in order to finish on the scheduled day. A further 2 or 0.1% were not completed on the scheduled day, primarily due to the limited number of staff volunteering for overtime.

For comparison purposes an analysis of the overtime hours worked in 1998 for the same two months was undertaken and is illustrated on the right column of table 1. Despite having 50 garbage packers on the road daily and the reduced daily tonnages associated with twice per week collection, the total 1998 overtime for September/October exceeded that worked for the same period of 1999 by 165.50 hours or 18.7%. Clearly the overtime hours worked since September of this year is not directly attributable to the change in service levels.

(2) The following table summarizes the volume of waste, yard waste and recycling collected from single family homes in the North York District for September/October 1998 and 1999.

* Passbys are defined as the number of households on a route where there is the potential for product to be out for collection.

As clearly illustrated, the recent change in collection frequencies has not had a detrimental impact in terms of waste diversion, and in fact the total tonnage of garbage collected is down in 1999, as compared to the same period in 1998, while recycling tonnage has increased by 9.03%.

Individual route volumes have not been provided as the routes are not comparable in size between 1998 and 1999, further, individual route tonnage records were not previously maintained in North York.

(3)Community Council's request, relative to summer twice a week collection, will be addressed verbally at the North York Community Council meeting of November 9, 1999.

(4)The estimated cost to increase the level of recycling pick-up city wide from once every second week to weekly is estimated at $2,500,000, allocated as follows:

District 1 (Toronto, East York and York) $1,200,000

District 2 (Etobicoke) $300,000

District 3 (North York) $500,000

District 4 (Scarborough) $500,000

These estimates are based on the cost savings realized in North York when once every second week service was introduced. This estimate is based on annual operating costs only and does not take into account the need for additional equipment in various areas of the City. Sufficient recycling trucks are currently available in the North York community to provide weekly service. However, there is not enough equipment in other parts of the City to provide weekly recycling collection.

(5)The number of complaints received by the Works and Emergency Services Department, Solid Waste Management, including the North York Civic Centre, are summarized in tables 2 and 3 (attached). By far, the majority of calls received were to request a new collection calendar. Calls received by Solid Waste directly have been summarized by ward whereas those received at the North York Civic Centre were not logged in that format and are summarized accordingly.

(6)The tonnage of waste collected monthly in 1999 is summarized as follows:

1) Average daily tonnage per route prior to January 1, 1999 was 8.03;

2) Average daily tonnage per route January through August 1999 was 9.48;

3) Average daily tonnage per route since September 1, 1999 was 12.65.

As defined in the preceding table, significant improvement has been made in terms of daily tonnages collected per route, which translates directly into productivity improvements and reduced cost.

Prior to January 1999, there were 50 garbage routes in place in the North York district. At that time tonnages collected per route averaged 18% lower than the January through August figures illustrated above. The September/October average tonnages translate into a tonnage per route increase of 57% since staff commenced reducing routes and equipment in December 1998.

(4) Staff and vehicle reductions in the North York District are summarized as follows:

Note: A total of 23 garbage packers have been removed from garbage collection since January 1, 1999, however, 9 of these were reassigned to yard waste collection and remain in service at peak times of the year.

(5) The total annual saving realized through conversion from twice weekly to weekly garbage collection is estimated at $1.3 million and a further $500,000 from conversion to every second week recycling. The actual savings from once a week garbage collection is expected to further increase as productivities improve and staff are reduced through retirements and attrition.

Conclusions:

In keeping with Toronto Council direction, significant changes relative to waste management services have been implemented in the North York Community over the past few months. The intent of this report is to report factual information pertaining to those changes as requested by North York Community Council.

Contact:

Ron Gordon

Director, Solid Waste Collections

Districts 3 and 4

Phone: (416) 396-4771

Fax: (416) 396-4156

E-mail: gordon@city.scarborough.on.ca

Angelos Bacopoulos

General Manager

Solid Waste Management Division

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List of Attachments:

Attachment #1 - Table 1

Attachment #2 - Table 2

Attachment #3 - Table 3

Attachment #1

Table 1