By Steve Hubrecht
The second last week of October was National Waste Reduction Week in Canada, and fittingly, Invermere council discussed two matters related to curbing the district’s environmental impact.
The timing was purely coincidence — both topics have been talked about for years at the municipal level, and both just happened to reach a point at which council needed to make a decision during the Tuesday, Oct. 22 meeting. The first choice council made was to pull the trigger on a quarter million dollar purchase of bear-resistant bins for its municipal composting program. The second was holding off on any decision about an Invermere-specific bylaw banning single-use plastics.
Invermere’s municipal composting program is about to launch soon. The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK)’s composting facility in Athalmer, a critical part of the composting program, is nearly finished. In a survey this summer, Invermere residents favoured curbside collection for the program (instead of communal collection bins). On October 22 Invermere councillors voted to purchase 1,760 Schaefer bear-resistant bins, which residents can put out for curbside pickup, just as they do with garbage and recycling.
Invermere environmental planner Amy Fletcher brought a Schaefer bin to the council meeting. The sturdy-looking bin had metal edges and big brass clips, which would make it difficult for bears (or any creature) to get into. Fletcher emphasized that residents must remove the clips before pickup (otherwise the organic waste inside will end up in the collection truck). She explained that the same bins have been successfully used in Golden and Squamish.
The Schaefer bins are not 100 per cent bear proof. Only large-scale, very expensive metal bins, such as the yellow bins in downtown Invermere are 100 per cent bear proof. Those, however, are not practical for curbside composting. The Schaefer bins are classified as ‘bear-resistant’, which Fletcher had previously explained means that in tests bears were unable to get into the bins despite trying for more than an hour.
The total cost of the bins is more than $450,000, in addition to other costs such as community engagement (i.e. teaching the public how to properly use the bins). But the district has more than $220,000 in grant money for the project, meaning the cost to the district is closer to $250,000. It will be paid from the municipal environmental reserve fund.
Councillor Gerry Taft said that when it comes to environmental issues “it is easy to do lip service. But this is real dollars going to a real project. There is a tangible benefit in terms of decreasing methane, and turning waste into soil. It’s the right thing to do, even though it will cost a lot.”
Invermere council is no longer pursuing a ban on single-use plastics in the district.
PHOTO PAT PITCHAYA/GETTY
Regarding single-use plastics, local residents have been pressing Invermere council to ban them since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Eventually in summer 2022, councillors directed staff to prepare such a bylaw. In the ensuing years, other municipal projects took priority, and in the interim, both the federal and the provincial government have begun implementing their own regulations on single-use plastics.
Fletcher recommended that council not proceed with a municipal single-use plastic bylaw, since the new regulations mean that businesses here are already not allowed to sell — or give out — plastic shopping bags, polystyrene foam food containers or other single-use plastics.
“It (the bylaw) is unnecessary,” said Fletcher.
Councillors weren’t sure one way or the other, with councillor Theresa Wood noting that one political party (in the provincial election) ran on banning single-use plastics. Therefore, she recommended waiting to see what happens. Her fellow councillors agreed.
