The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George has passed on an offer from Recycle BC.
An offer was brought to the table that would have seen the Regional District contract out depot collection on a five-year term partnership, but because of the cost for additional staffing the board decided to turn it down.
“It’ll cost us twice as much, almost three times as much, to work under their offer than to have no offer at all,” says Board member Terry Burgess. “They said the offer changed, but it was a very small change. There would be penalties for contaminants and the worst thing for us would be employing someone at every site who may only have five people come by a day and drop off recyclables.”
Burgess added they would be charge an additional 25 per cent penalty if a corner store puts out recycling, which knocked down any offer they had.
The Regional District would like to hand recycling off to the private sector, but they don’t want taxpayers to pay for it.