Image Credit: City of Kamloops

By James Peters

Waste Collection

Optional bear-resistant bins pass committee stage, going to Kamloops council

Jun 4, 2024 | 5:45 PM

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops is stepping up its fight to keep bears out of residents’ waste containers.

At its meeting Tuesday morning (June 4), council’s Livability and Sustainability Committee approved recommendations that the city purchase a batch of bear-resistant garbage and organics carts.

The carts are better reinforced than the standard bins and are equipped with clasps to keep the lid closed. Residents then unclasp the lids when placing their bins at curbside for pickup.

Beginning in June 2022, the carts were piloted in Juniper Ridge West. In the one-year project, the city recorded only two incidents of bears damaging the bins with their attempts to break in.

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Streets and Environmental Services Manager Glen Farrow says the carts worked so well, residents may have become over-confident.

“One of the key things we discovered was, now that the people have these great containers, the carts are actually out of their garages, out at the curb more often than they should have been because they have this bear-proof, bear-resistant container,” Farrow told the committee. “In some ways, some of the attitudes shifted a little bit.”

Farrow laid out options for the city to either roll out mandatory bear-resistant bins to the entire city — at a cost of $5.1 million — or ease into the program by buying 1,000 carts and offering them to residents by request.

“Those who need this service would have the ability to get that cart for your garbage and your organics collection,” he said. “Residents with car ports who right now are using zap straps and ratchet straps to make an attempt to lock it down — that only goes so far. These carts would be a better solution for that.”

The initial cost is $195,000, funded through the existing Solid Waste Reserve. Residents who request the organics or garbage carts will see their annual lease fees increase by $20 per cart.

The move must still be given the okay in a regular council meeting.