Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Langley City Trash Talk: Part 2. New Garbage/Organics Collection Fee Lower Than Township and Surrey

Last month, I posted that Langley City's 10-year garbage and organics collection contract is expiring with Emterra at the end of this year. Over the last year, City staff have worked on putting together a request for proposal to the private market for a new garbage and organics collections contract. Langley City received a proposal from Emterra and GFL.

As I previously posted, Council had several questions about the new contract, so Council decided to defer voting on approving a new contract to allow City staff time to address Council's questions.

For people who currently get Langley City garbage and organics collections service, the rate is changing from an annual rate of $271 this year to an annual rate of $409* next year. We had a very good deal with our old contract, and that pricing is not available anymore.

Our new rate is still lower than other South of Fraser municipalities. The following table shows the rates for other South of Fraser municipalities.

Municipality 2024 Annual Rate
Langley City $271
Surrey $337
White Rock $346
Langley Township $372

* 2025 Rate Estimate ($309 + Estimated $100 in Metro Vancouver fees

The most significant change you will notice with the new garbage and organics collection service is new City-provided toters. People will get 240-litre toters for detached houses and 120-litre toters for townhouses with Langley City service (most townhouse stratas contract their own service.) People can swap out their toter size between 240 and 120 litres.

Example of Toters

Among Council, there is a desire to move towards an in-housing garbage and organics service as we believe it will provide a better quality of service and help us better control costs. Langley City's current operation centre does not have the space for an in-house service. Langley City recently purchased additional property and is designing a new operation centre. Council asked that it be designed to support an in-house garbage and organics collection service. Our contract with Emterra is for seven years.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is awesome! So many question! For the garbage and compost- pick up, what will be the initial price of the bins? And what about actual recyclables? Can’t wait to hear about the new facility! It feels like Langley City is truly moving forward! Thanks council!

Nathan Pachal said...

It is exciting. My understanding is that the bins will be free. Recycle BC handles recycling in Langley City; it isn’t handled by Langley City. (It is a provincial organization.)

Anonymous said...

One green organic bin won’t be enough for many of us that have larger yards. Will we be allowed to add our extra bins as we have in the past for extra green waste.

Nathan Pachal said...

I don't have the full service details, but the idea is to maintain or improve the current level of service.