Sound check. One, two, three. Soundtrack one, two, three. Today is Tuesday, June 2nd, and welcome to the Waste Management Subcommittee meeting. Uh my name is Alex Wilson. I'm the vice chair today. Also in chambers with us, we have councelor Mark Tatison, and joining us online, we have Chair Francis. Uh we also have uh member Peter Hargreaves as well as member Kevin Hunt. And that's our committee here today. Um I'd like to call today's meeting to order as we do have quorum present. Uh reminder that if everyone could switch their electronic devices to a nonaudible function so we can get going. Uh first up as always is the approval of the agenda. May I have a mover and a seconder to approve today's agenda as presented? Can I see councelor Tatterson moving that and thanks member Hunt. Second that. Uh and there we go. All in favor? Not seeing any opposed. Okay, that carries. Um are there any declarations of interest for today's meeting? Um if anyone has a declaration, seeing some head shaken. Seeing no declarations, we can move on uh to the adoption of minutes from our previous meeting. Uh that is March 30th, May March 30th, 2026. May I please have a mover and a seconder to adopt the previous meeting's minutes. Thank you member Hunt and uh councelor Tatison for seconding that. Uh any opposed? Seeing none, uh that carries. Okay, that brings us to item six on our agenda, delegations. Uh joining us today we have Jason Moro from Invest Corp respecting information sharing on biodigestion of organic green bin in Ontario related to the 2026 to 2050 Hamilton solid waste management master plan short-term action items which is item 7.1 on our agenda today. Before we begin our delegations uh members are reminded that questions for the delegations are for clarification purposes only not for debate. And a note to our delegates that you will have five minutes to complete your delegation. You will hear a tone after the four minutes and you'll have an additional minute uh to finish up. And then I have notes here that uh the delegate today would like an additional 5 minutes. So a 10-minute delegation. Um if I could just have a mover and seconder on committee to move that. Um and we can accommodate that. Thanks, Councelor Francis. Seconded by councelor Tatison. Um not seeing any opposed. Uh that carries. Okay, Jason. Uh I believe we have the ability to share your slides. Uh or I don't know if you're sharing them. So okay, we're going to share them on this end and so you have 10 minutes. Please begin. Thank you. Thanks everyone for uh for hosting. Um can um just waiting for the slides to come up. Envest is a independent energy producer based in Ontario. But we are a 10-year-old company and um if you can do a page flip please. We are focused on infrastructure solutions owning and operating and um in industrial sector where we provide industry with uh infrastructure for thermal energy, power and other byproducts as well as bio energy. Uh we also own a decarbonization business called Bullfrog Power. It's a 20-year-old brand in Canada, very well known. And um but here today we're focused on our bio energy business. Uh we are leaders and we're the volutric leaders for recycling green bin or s separated organics municipally in Ontario today. So, I wanted to uh uh present to you our operations and as well as a new exciting project that we're building uh just north of the GTA. Page flip, please. And um you know, our track record is that we've displaced 3.7 million tons of CO2 emissions. We're approaching 1 million metric tons of organic waste diverted from landfills and close to 1 million tons of organic fertilizer produced. We actually have a CFIA fertilizer label organic fertilizer uh that we've been producing for uh 15 years through our operations. Page flip please. And uh we are leaders in structuring our transactions as indigenous partnerships and uh we've been doing this uh since the beginning of our company and uh the projects that we're talking about today are indigenousled structures. Um and we're not uh uh talking about royalty stream. we were talking about full equity 50/50 uh type ventures in in our cases it's actually uh 5149 so it's a truly an indigenous le facilities that I'll be discussing with you today slide flip please our flip renewables site has been in operation since 2011 so this is the first commercial scale privatelyowned anorobic digtor in Canada. We uh have developed our expertise over the years in processing municipal organics through this facility. And uh slide flip please. Very robust facility. You can see a sca the scale of that. There's an 18-wheeler truck there in the foreground. Uh 40 ton truck. Um so these buildings are about three or four stories tall. And we use a mix of thermal uh or or meopilic and thermopilic digestion. Uh through this process we've been producing co-generation here for 15 years selling electricity to the ISO so to the province of Ontario and the thermal energy to the adjacent 7 acre organic tomato greenhouse. Slide flip please. And you could see how we're colllocated with that 7 acre greenhouse and we providing all the thermal energy that this greenhouse uses over the years. We are now upgrading to expanding our facility to incorporate renewable natural gas and we're uh we're uh targeting completion uh midy year Q3 of this year and um so very very wellestablished project that is uh coming to uh commissioning later this year. Slide please. The distance of our cacliffe project is 320 kilometers from Toronto. But the um new project that we are building, it's a green field project, but it's far uh established. It's about 25% uh into construction currently is only 80 kilometers uh from the GTA and it's in Dundock, Ontario in the township of Southgate. Slide flip please. Uh, Ccliffe co-owned with the Missagas of Skugog Island First Nation and Henry Inlet First Nation. Slide, please. We've been recognized municipally and proincially for our good work over the years at our our Secliff operations. Slide, please. And our Southgate renewables site. So, we're on 10 acres at the Eco Industrial Park in the township of South Southgate in the town of of Dundock, Ontario. Um, the lessons learned over our 15 years in operations have been embedded in the design of this facility. So, it'll be a very robust recycling process for source separated organics. Slide please. again uh 80 kilometers from Toronto slide clip and uh in construction. So this facility will produce renewable natural gas as its energy byproduct um injecting into the Nbridge pipeline. again uh very uh far down the road in um in uh construction. So about 25% completed. We are the largest beneficiary this project is of the clean fuels fund from natural resources Canada where they have provided $ 38.1 million of uh grant funding. This is also an indigenous structured project that is uh co-owned with the Missosagas of Skugog Island First Nation and Henry Inlet First Nation. The permitted capacity of this facility is 73,000 metric tons. Our permitted capacity at Secliff is 110,000 metric tons. And um so we're really here today to uh state that our commissioning is targeted for Q4 of 2027 and uh we are here to solicit interest for a long-term period with municipalities like yours. Um contracts in this sector as you recognize are getting longer term in nature because uh permanent capacity is getting tighter to find. So we're at a perfect stage here uh to engage with you for a long-term relationship. Slide flip please. And that concludes the my slide presentation. If there are any questions you have, I'd be pleased to take them. >> Thank you, Jason. We do have some questions from committee members. I'm going to start with councelor Tison and if anyone else is able to either signal to the clerks in the chat or make sure we can see a via an indicator. Happy to add to that speakers list. Councelor Tison, starting with you. >> I'd like to thank you for your presentation. Um, it's appreciated. You said that in your presentation that there was lessons learned from uh Secliffe to the employment at Southgate. So what are some of those um lessons learned that that you have incorporated into Southgate? >> That's an excellent question. So when we built Secliffe in 2010, uh we were pioneers in this space. Um again the first commercial scale privatelyowned anorobic digtor and um you know the depackaging system is is an early example. Uh you know we have we tried different equipment. We have a system that now we've uh tried and tested. We've replaced equipment. We've modified equipment but we're very comfortable with the robust system that we use today. And so those lessons learned are now embedded in the design of Southgate. Um, another area of focus is odor control and obviously important when you have um, you know, uh, residential presence within a few kilometers and you have you know you're handling decaying organics. So um we have a pretty robust system that we designed over the years and uh again tried and tested negative pressure in the receiving area um and uh uh to contain and systems that we have uh enhanced over the years. And so again all those lessons learned are now embedded in our original design for for Southgate. to to answer a couple of uh but there's much mechanical um you know experience that we have that perhaps was not in the original design in 2009 and 2010 with Ccliff. >> Thank you very much for that answer. I'm always interested in continuous improvement. What are areas that you're looking at currently uh to improve going forward? um you know maximizing the throughput of uh material coming in and trucks going out and uh so you know we've taken that into our design at Southgate but we're on a uh 10 acre parcel here in Dundock um so that's very important because we want to be most efficient with municipal trucks to dump their material carefully and then exit without having, you know, to line up as uh, you know, we've seen at other facilities. So, you want to avoid that. >> Okay. Thanks. I appreciate those answers. >> Thank you, Councelor Francis. >> Thank you, Chair. And, um, thank you to the delegate for coming down here. And, um, it was good delegation. And I know at this subcommittee, there's a few counselors here that are hearing this. I think it'd be great if uh if public works committee members given I think there's 12 members out of 15 or out of 16 rather um be a good idea to maybe come delegate and explain this to public works committee but uh in terms of your capacity um or the capacity across Ontario do you know what that is and and and how many places um participate in this? >> Um yeah good good question. So I would put it at under 1 million tons of uh green bin waste. Um and so just to you know the first source separated organics contract that went directly to anorobic digestion into private hands was contract that we had with Peele region and uh that was 2016. Um the municipality uh well Toronto the city of Toronto has two digesttors as you probably know at Duffren and Disco Road. Uh so they're really the city that was an early adopter of this technology. Uh but we have a city of Toronto contract now uh for example. So they have an abundance of material that exceeds their own internal capacity. Um, Durham Region, York Region, Essex Windsor, uh, just started their first SSO program. We have that contract for eight years. Durham Region, we have 10-year contract with them. Uh, we have York Region that we're, uh, uh, recycling under contract. They're building um, well, they're not, they're commissioned a building of a, uh, facility for their own purposes at York Region under a 20-year contract. Um, so you could see that that's how things are moving in the industry because capacity is tight. These facilities are very difficult to build, especially as close as we are to the GTA. Very difficult. You know, there's nimiism. There's expanding urban sprawl. Um the uh the township of Southgate is a very welcoming township because they have a green eco industrial park and so they want to attract green businesses and that's the reason why they were so welcoming to this project but this is about 10 years in development to put it into perspective. The permitting is challenging uh the environmental permitting with Ontario. So when capacity opens up, what we're finding is strong engagement from municipalities for a long-term relationship. And that's really what I'm here to present and offer to the uh city of Hamilton. >> Thank you, Chair. I really appreciate that explanation. Thank you for coming down. >> Thank you. And I believe member Hunt had some questions for Hill as well. Kevin, you're just on mute if you wanted to ask a question. >> Oh, there we go. I put it in the chat just in case it wasn't going to work. Um, in our organics streams from the green bins, uh, quite often salt in food is always a concern. How how have you overcome that? And is your process accepting of you know salt in the waist stream? >> Yeah, good question. Um, you know, the salt that shows up is really um very minor impact to the massive amounts of organic slurry that are in those vessels. And um so for example and you know for in a thermopilic vessel like you saw at Secliffe we hold that organic slurry for about 2 days at a temperature of about 55° C and then the subsequent process is messilic. So it's about 30° C for about a month. And what comes out of that uh system is a an effluent that is fully pasteurized. Um the salt impact is not really um you know is is never is not been uh an issue. There are other issues that we deal with like hydrogen sulfide and a lot of the very strong um uh byproducts of that digestion process is what we are uh designed to uh to deal with. There's also kind of perhaps related to your question is grit, right? And in uh all that organic material or those you know the the the waste material from the municipalities whether it's sand or rocks or uh you know that material filters down to the bottom and every once in a while we have to clean out the vessel. So grit removal is also some a nuisance but it's a scheduled maintenance item uh that we design into our program. Okay. Uh, second question to the chair. Um, does your process work well if you put leaf and yard waste into the organic stream? It's not it's not meant to process uh leaf and yard waste because um yard waste is uh there's linen and it's difficult to anorobically digest and break down you know tree branches, twigs etc. Um so you know our system is meant to anorobically digest uh organic material that is not you know tied uh you know is not heavily uh contained linen. What we're doing is replicating the environment in a landfill. You bury organics in a landfill, it creates a very toxic bio gas that's about 60% 65% methane. That's 28 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2. And the advantage over landfill is that a lot of the landfill gas dissipates to the surface and enters the atmosphere which is why you know we have uh regulatory environment where we collect that landfill gas and flare it to uh um reduce the impact on the environment. Now what we're doing is replicating what would be buried underground and in contained vessels. So my point in saying this is if you put, you know, a branch, tree branch or a log or something, bury it underground, you come back years later, you'll probably find that material there, not very well digested. But if you put, you know, uh, you know, vegetables, they won't exist there uh, very long after you've you've buried them. So that's our system. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Francis. I see you're have more questions. >> Uh sorry chair the questions not to the delegates. So just to uh either yourself or the clerk. >> No worries. Are you okay if we receive the delegation first before we move on? >> Perfect. >> Uh just going to do a pause to see if there's any other questions of our delegate today. Not seeing any. Thank you Jason for coming down and uh talking about your proposal as we're embarking on a new solid waste management master plan at the city. Appreciate the information. Um, can I get a mover and a seconder to receive the delegation? Um, thank you. Seeing councelor Francis, seeing member Nielsen. Um, move and second that. All in favor of receiving the delegation. Just a quick show of hands. That's everyone. Thank you. That's received. Um, and councelor, thank you Jason again for coming out. I really do appreciate your time this morning. We're we're just so you know, we're going on to the rest of our agenda, but we do appreciate you sharing this information. Um, and councelor Francis, I believe you're on the with a question for staff at this time. >> Yeah, that's great. >> Thank you, council. Appreciate your time today. >> Thank you, Jason. >> Thank you, uh, Vice Chair Wilson. I Yeah, just my question would be to, uh, to the clerk as to how we would get the this, um, delegation, um, the delegate to come before public works committee in a couple weeks time. >> Um, he would have to submit a request. it would have to be about an item on the agenda. Um otherwise he would have to go to the July meeting. >> So without we sorry because this item will be placed on the the minutes of this meeting will be placed on the public works agenda. Uh would that would he then be eligible to delegate to the public works committee in two weeks time >> through the chair councelor Francis? I'm going to help a little bit. Um, so we have uh the organics strategy report is currently scheduled to come back to public works committee in August and so it might be a perfect opportunity to align the item with that report because it's 100% about um organics. It could talk about an option or an alternative for contracting out which this would be. So I might recommend that it go there. The other item is in speaking with um the firm from Nvest yesterday. we have seen this presentation before. Very impressed. I'm happy to see them again here today. Um they also wondered if they could go to public works committee. Typically we bring them here because if one comes to public works committee we could end up with 35 which is totally fine but um generally in the last few years they've geared these types of presentations to this subcommittee for that reason. We take the information back it becomes included in our future reports etc. As I mentioned with the organic strategy talking about uh you know potential third-party processing um an open procurement would certainly allow them to be able to participate in that. >> Understood. No, that's that's perfect. That perfectly answers the question. I think uh having them go to the August meeting with the organic strategy makes a lot of sense. Thank you very much. >> Thank you councelor Francis. So just a bit of a road map check. We've received our delegation. We're now going over to staff. We have six items for information on our agenda today. Um including uh one of the items for information that this delegation was in part reference to which are some of the short-term actions. If I could call upon and I think what we'll do today is we'll do questions throughout but we'll do a vote to receive all six at the end if that works for everyone as we typically do. So I'm going to invite uh Ryan Kent, a manager of waste policy and Jamie Macintosh, senior project manager to take the wheel for the next little bit. Um, and we'll pause after each presentation to see if there's any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Yeah, I will begin today again. Ryan Kent, manager of waste policy and planning. Um, I will begin today with item 7.1, the 2026 to 2050 Hamilton solid waste management master plan short-term action items. So, as uh committee members might know, um on May 25th, which was last Monday, at public works committee, our uh 2026 to 2050 Hamilton solid waste management master plan was approved. Uh which we're uh staff is very excited about. Um it is still pending uh council approval which is going to council uh tomorrow. Um so we're looking forward to that. Now, a big piece of this uh plan is what are staff going to work on over the next 5 years? A short-term action plan. And there are 11 short-term action items that are to be completed by the end of 2030. Um some action items uh we have commenced some of the work um as the information from those projects is required for our next waste collection contract. But we thought um it was a good opportunity today to to bring the list here um to this group to look at. Um one of the recommendations in that report was for staff to report back to this group annually on the progress of the master plan. So we wanted to just um it will most likely be an item that we will see quite a bit over the next five years on on the agenda here at this subcommittee. So I'm going to go through um what we have on the short-term action items on this table on this slide and then on on the next slide as well. So um and the timelines are on the right hand column. So the first action item is great that we were just talking about this uh assess renewable energy potential from organics. Uh so it has been mentioned uh director story already spoke about uh in August we've got a report going to public works committee and um the basis of that report is our organics management strategy long-term strategy and we are going one of the items we will be discussing at that time is uh renewable renewable energy potential. So basically what we're talking about at that time is renewable natural gas which would be um most likely come from an anorobic digestion system which we saw the the delegate present on. So we look forward to bringing that to committee uh public works committee in August. The next item is review curbside bulk item collection program. Uh that is one of the items on the agenda for today. Uh so I won't speak too much about it. Um but that is an item that u staff have already reviewed uh that program. Uh the third item is review inclusion of grass clippings in leaf and yard waste. So this is also a 2026. This is uh basically to assess whether or not we think that any changes need to be made into what's accepted into our yard waste program. Um you know what amount of material is grass clippings? uh do we need to better promote um people leaving that material on their lawns? Um staff have undergone have had a contractor come in and do one round of waste composition studies in May and they'll be doing another one in June to give us a good get us uh give us a good handle on uh what the composition is and and how much of the uh percentage of that material is from uh grass clippings. expanding reuse and recycling programs at community recycling centers. So, uh basically um our community recycling center is looking to see what else can we divert. Um we have staff that are will be have already put out a bid or sorry bid an RFQ for the services um to do a waste composition study at our community recycling centers to give us a better more granular idea of what's actually going uh we're actually receiving there to identify pilot programs that we might we will be doing in 2027. Um this goes handinhand with develop a construction and demolition waste strategy um that those waste composition studies will tell us what people are throwing out from from that sector as well again to pilot next year in 2027. The next two are heavily related to our next waste collection contract um and and they are to consider two pieces um automated garbage and green bin collection and to consider bi-weekly garbage collection. um these two items obviously um they're either big service level changes or they are um large capital investments in included in both of them. So for the waste collection contract, we need to determine whether or not those would be services before the contract goes out. Um in the first quarter of 2027, we expect to have a report go back to public works committee to determine exactly what should be included in that RFP um before it goes out to bid. And moving along to the next four items. Um these won't be started until at least 2027 as our our target dates. Develop a multi-residentidential waste diversion strategy. Um support repair cafes and sharing libraries. Um facilitate curbside diversion and reuse events. And then the last is explore mixed waste processing. Um for those that are unaware of what uh mixed waste processing, it's basically a system where um all your garbage does not get separated at the source, it goes to a facility and the organics, recycling commodities, these types of things would be separated out. Um we haven't had any discussions for this piece yet, but it is something that was um um identified by the consultant as something that we should look into. And that is the end of item 7.1. Happy to take any questions on the short-term action items for the 2026 2050 solid waste master plan. >> I'm seeing councelor Tesson ready to go. >> Any plan for styrofoam? >> Any plan for styrofoam or polystyrene? I believe that that item is included in the new blue box program. So it would be something that should be um accepted at the curbside program. So um uh the expanded use expanded list, pardon me, of blue box materials includes that as well as a few other items. So >> thank you. No more questions. >> My pleasure. >> I'm could just pass the chair to you for a second. Go ahead, counselor. >> Um, just wanted to say really appreciate SESA public works, seeing the repair cafe support and just working with community groups there. I think meeting our community where they're at, uh, helps us get to some of those diversion things and so it's not a huge thing maybe in the tonnage, but really appreciate that being included as a priority action or in those short-term actions. Um, when it came to it's fine. when it came to uh multi-residentidential buildings, I know I was particularly shocked to see pet waste be the tonnage that it was and maybe shouldn't have been like maybe that's just my novelty. Um is there any specific whether it's in any of whether that's through mixed use or something else but just pulling out pet waste or seeing what does that look like potentially also you know newborns diapers etc could be the same stream but just wondering um I was shocked just how much it was in our multi-residential Yeah. So through the chair, yeah, it outside of green bin organics, it's definitely those are the the two big items. Um obviously with with pet waste, you can understand that kitty litter weighs a lot. Um and it's very dense material. Um we will be looking at what we could do potentially for that uh potentially through the organics management strategy because there are some municipalities that that manage that material. Um same with with diapers as well. However, I would say that um there is also residue that comes from those as well. So it's not 100% diversion. So uh we will obviously look at those. Um I don't think any municipality has really found a great way outside of a green bin program to divert those materials. Um but we will certainly uh look at those items uh over the next 5 years and part of the organic expansion strategy. >> Thank you. And then last one from me is just around this idea that we heard this morning is about where we are seeking expansion. So maybe it's expansion in any of the streams that we kind of operate. And as a result, I'm assuming this is just a process question. Is it on a case-by case basis? So within our organic stream, we're getting a report back in August and we're going to be expanding. We're having a capacity potentially not issue, but we're running into a capacity limit. And so we're having a conversation, how do we want to manage that? If we decide we want to increase capacity, in-house options as well as potentially private contracts are going to be looked at, best practice evaluated. Is that how in general throughout the solid waste management master plan um decisions regarding service delivery whether that be privatization contracting out bringing something in is it going to happen on a case-byase basis to the stream or to the kind of collection service or is there a overarching kind of strategic decision point that's happening as a part of the plan itself >> the chair I would say that we're looking at it >> through the chair I would say that yeah we're looking at a case by case basis so for example So um if we're looking at organics um you're correct in the in the idea that we have limited capacity we have infrastructure however we're hoping that we can increase that capacity so we can continue to do that. Um obviously um if we came into a capacity issue we would have to look at the private sector to to see if they could supplement the infrastructure we have. But I think staff's goal here is to try and utilize the capacity that we do have as best as possible. Uh when we're looking at um other programs, other diversion programs, let's just take a an example of let's say at the community recycling centers. If we decided to do construction demolition and we decided to do concrete, um we would obviously be partnering with the contractor that we have on site currently. Um whether or not that's for the next contract or amending the current contract and determine how um and other internal groups how best to to deal with them. So, it is definitely a case- by case basis um figure out the best way to do it. And that's why I think some of these pilot projects are are really going to help us to determine where we can get the biggest bang for our buck, where can we divert the most, be cost-effective, and provide a program that residents really really um will use and appreciate. >> Thank you. Really appreciate this road map for decisions as opposed to, you know, it's not a decision document so much as having that road map of the decisions in front of us. Thank you. I do see I believe Heather has add herself to list. So I'll take the chair back and we'll continue with our speakers list. Uh please continue Heather. >> Great. Thank you. Um I I just want to confirm something for myself but also make sure that it stays in in everybody's mind. Uh oh, I'm I'm not frozen, am I? >> Okay, >> we can hear you. Your video doesn't appear to be on, but we can hear your audio coming in clearly. >> Okay. Oh, okay. just popped up. I can't connect to my camera. Not sure why. Um, so when something is included in the blue bin program now in its current form, um, that that doesn't necessarily mean that it's getting recycled, right? That just means that the producers are taking responsibility for it and then diverting it from there either to be recycled or to go to their landfill site. >> I I have that right. Right. So through the chair uh to my understanding um producers do not own any of these landfills but um I've been in numerous meetings with uh with producers and um spoken producer organizations I should say um and asked the question whether or not there are markets available for some of these materials um for example toothpaste tubes. It's a you know a new item that's been added to the list as of January 1st. Um what I have been told um from those producer organizations uh circular materials specifically is that there are markets for those materials. Um there's a little bit of residue on them um but that there are markets for recycling those materials. So um I would not say that there's a lot of these new items that are going to uh landfall as I think you said Heather. Um I I don't I would not say that. Um um I think their goal is to divert um those materials. Um so it's my understanding that they are and I've asked that question and u uh aside from that um I I can't really speak to it in any more detail than that. >> Okay. I know for styrofoam one of the reasons a lot of municipalities stopped accepting it is because there it's I mean it's very bulky, takes up a lot of space and there's not that much market for the recycled product. So, I think there probably are some items like that that even though this new program needs to take responsibility for them, it doesn't automatically mean that there is a market or at least not necessarily a big enough market for the bulk that is ending up in there. Um, so I maybe this would have fit better in the the section about education because I think from speaking with members of the public, I think a lot of people don't really understand what what the difference is between this new system and and the old in those respects. Okay. So, through the chair, uh yes, we can we could talk a bit about the education piece. Um we aren't on the agenda. There isn't specifically the blue box um to speak about for education. Um I think it's also important to note that staff um is not as involved in the education of the blue box program as we once were when it was a municipally run program. um you know circular materials is definitely um really driving the boat I would say on on that. Um however we we do assist where we can. Um so um I I think I absolutely agree that there needs to be more education and we have actually asked circuit materials to have a meeting or two with us so that we can talk about where the gaps are specifically in Hamilton so that um our residents are educated as best as they can be. Thanks. Any followup, Heather? Seeing you've muted your Okay. Um, member >> Okay. Thank you, Heather. Uh, member Harrief. >> Perfect. I I thought maybe if I could provide just a bit more background um to Ryan's point. So technically uh circular materials needs to provide um they need to provide verification that the materials that are getting collected are and you know where they're being sent to. So there is an additional requirement for them to verify where those materials are going. Um so things like styrofoam have markets. They just they're they break apart and uh they're expensive to to um transport uh because they're lightweight and uh take up a lot of space. But there are densifiers and things like that and there markets for that material. Uh but again as I said all of that needs to go through uh the regulator um and they need to verify where those materials are are actually going. So there is an additional layer under the new system for blue box that does add additional certainty to the public that those materials are being properly managed. >> Thank you for that, Peter. I'm not seeing any other questions on 7.1, so I'm going to throw it back to uh manager Kent for the special consideration program. Just waiting for the it to catch up here. Thank you. Yeah. So 7.2 is on our special consideration program. This is uh a fairly brief update on it. However, um I just wanted to speak to what staff is planning on doing over the next uh over the next year starting this year. So, uh as some background, uh for those that don't know, the special consideration program provides single family properties uh with 102 additional garbage tanks per year if they fall into um several categories. And this is um basically those households that do not believe that they can meet the one bag a week limit. So the categories are are up on the side. They have two or more children under the age of four. At least one resident who has a medical condition resulting in additional garbage. The property is registered home daycare um or operates as an agricultural operation. Um so basically the process is right now at the beginning of the year um they contact the city that they want to be added to the list. Um staff do not verify any of the information. It's kind of an honor system. um uh and and they are given a letter later on mailed out to them saying they've been included in the program and that's how their tags are are delivered to them. Uh in 2024 um staff looked at um did some waste composition studies and one of the composition studies we did was specifically on the properties um some properties in the special consideration program. Um basically our our goal there was to see um how much of this waste which is um requiring additional tags is is is in the garbage and what is the participation in the green bin program. So you can see the results of this audit up on the slide. Um at the very top you'll notice that um only about 35% of the properties had a green bin even out at the curb on collection day. Um and then we can go down the each one of the um special consideration criteria. So starting with family um number of properties audited were 28 and only sorry 13 of them had no special consideration waste. So specifically in this case we were the auditor was looking for diapers. So there were zero diapers in their waste and 45 40% 44% uh of the garbage was greenman waste. Moving along to medical um 23 properties 13 had no medical waste in it and again a low percentage of or a high relatively high percentage of green bin material in the garbage. Um the results were um not quite as bad for home daycare and agriculture um but certainly um some improvements can be made um can be made there. So moving forward um a lot of text uh on this slide but uh basically in response to this audit um staff have made a are going to move forward with a couple of changes. The first thing in that letter that these properties received to um have them accepted into the program at this year um there was a note saying that uh being included in the program um is contingent upon them participating in the green bin program. Um so that acceptance letter was was updated. Um this year we plan on our staff doing some audits on the special consideration properties to see if they've got green bins out or not. those that do not um will be notified um that they do need to reminded I guess is a better way uh of saying it that they do need to provide in the green bin program um to stay on the on the uh on the program. Properties that continue to not participate in the green bin program will not be accepted in the following year. Um right now staff is developing a a process for this um a procedure so that we know exactly how many times um we it might be a three strikes and you're out type of thing. Um kind of what we are implementing for multi-residential buildings that do not participate in the green bin program. Um so that's what uh what staff are going to be doing um this year. Um obviously we know that this program is very important to some some households. We know that there are some households that it is difficult for them to meet the garbage limit and um that's the value in the program but because it is an honor system um unfortunately there is a requirement for us to make sure that those that are maybe taking advantage of the program do not and uh so we will be moving forward this year with with fixing um well I would say addressing that issue and I am happy to take uh any other questions on this update. I >> think member Neielson's first the first out at this time. >> So the your first slide show that some of those homes that are given special consideration don't actually have any of those materials like diapers and stuff in their waist >> through the chair. That is correct. So no medical waste, no diapers. So a home daycare for example that says their home daycare has has has none as well as no agricultural waste. That is true. That's what that slide was showing. >> So this letter is also going to be not just looking at the use of the green bin but also making sure that they have what has allowed them to have that status >> at this time. I would say the resources required to do those audits uh to that level is is a little bit difficult. um we might be able to do that in the future, but obviously paying an auditor, having them do it more than one time each year, it's a little bit more difficult. So, um our big piece right now is to get people to at least use the green bin. Um because we do think that one of the drivers here is that people don't want to use a green bin. They get the additional tags and they don't have that waste. So, we did see that linkage. So, that's what we're really hoping to to fix. If the problem persists once we, you know, maybe cut people out that have had two children under the age of four for 20 years, then we can look forward to maybe uh maybe doing that. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Thanks, Member Nielsson. I see councelor Katison as our only other person with questions at this time. >> I'm not sure if this is an oversight on my ability to read, but I just can't see how many households participate with this program. through a cherry. Yes, I I apologize. I didn't uh include that. And off the top of my head, the number escapes me, but I can tell you ballpark that it we we do have over a thousand properties on the special consideration program, but I couldn't tell you the exact number at this time. I'm sorry I don't have that number. >> Okay, that's not a problem. I just think um I see that you're endeavoring to um bring a little bit of accountability to these thousand households and and and I fully support that. So, thanks. >> Yeah, and I would just say that um most likely like we'll do our best to get to as many properties as we can um with the staff that we have on multiple occasions. Um and that will be the the biggest challenge, but hopefully as we weed out some, it'll be easier to do that. >> Yeah. And I and I can see some people that, you know, they may have had like four kids like 15 years ago, right? And they just forgot to get themselves off the list or something like that. So, I can understand that. But I do think that, you know, reminders and accountability and certain responsibilities from the public have to be followed through by for staff because I know there's a certain population that if if they're not held accountable, they'll just let things continue to go through. So, thank you very much. >> Uh, no problem. And just a point of clarification through the chair, um, every year u households need to apply. So, they don't stay on the list. It is up to the households to apply for the program. >> Well, that's a little bit more of accountability than I thought. So, thanks. so much. >> Thanks everyone. Not seeing any other questions. Uh we'll go back to you Mr. Kent for our next presentation. Thanks. All right, moving along to item 7.3, uh, multi-residentidential garbage cart implementation. So, uh, this is just a quick update on the program. Um along with the um solid waste master plan that went on May 25th at public works uh another item that went was um the waste design requirements. So revised um version of of that policy uh was approved at at May 25th public works as well. Um one of the important items in that policy is um the multi-residential garbage cart program. So previously um any building considered multi-res which is six units or more um need to be serviced with a front-end garbage bin. Um this obviously required uh provided some challenges um to smaller infill developments. So staff have moved forward with um including garbage carts which are do not include require a loading space, do not require access and it makes it a little bit easier for these buildings to be uh serviced. Um we all also looking at um probably the bigger piece right now of this project I is the buildings that we have on service currently. So those that are some in our downtown core that put out piles of garbage bags at the curb on a weekly basis uh which is obviously unsightly adds to pests. Um requires our staff to actually throw garbage bags as opposed to using an automated system. Uh as well as there are some that require a collection vehicle to reverse onto a public street which there is a safety issue. So, but we're looking at implementing this program both for new developments now that the waste center requirements have been approved and then also for existing. So, uh the progress that we've made on the project so far, uh currently there was a request for quotation for for the garbage carts has been released. So, we're waiting for for that to come back with some costing. Um we've moved forward with uh commence with procurement for the cart tippers. So, not all of our waste collection vehicles servicing these areas have a cart tipper that can tip them. So, we're moving forward with that. We are working on an inspection procedure of properties to add them to the service. So, we have staff that will go out to the properties. We want them to be able to um know exactly what they're looking for. So, we have a good procedure for that. Um the actual implementation, we'll be looking at uh implementing this in our Azone. So what our city forces do inhouse um they will be inspected first and brought onto the program. Um and then Bzones which is collected by the contractor unfortunately we won't be able to move forward with that until uh a new contract is in place right it's a new service level um so we want to make sure that we can um we we'll need to get pricing through the the procurement process so um we we are staff is pretty excited to move forward with this new program. uh it's been wellreceived by developers uh the planning staff as well as uh our our waste staff as well. So um this is a very quick update but I am happy to take any questions on this program as well. >> If I could pass the chair to councelor Tatis and not seeing anyone else jump up I'll be the first one this time. >> Go ahead. Um, just a question about is the you think about those six-unit building. So I'm I'm in one of those kind of it's a heritage building. It's I couldn't tell you if it's officially a sixplex. I haven't looked, but you know like the that kind of style. So it's right on the line where you have you're in a completely residential neighborhood. You have five to six units. What's the policy for discretion there where you think that had a cart having a big change is maybe more, you know, more harm to the either the collection or the community or whatever that like the change has a cost associated with it. Has that versus in a downtown area, highly residential, sidewalks are narrow, etc., you know, just trying to understand the the use of discretion if any, or is it going to be a you're a sixplex, you're zoned as such, and we're just going to follow zoning. Um or will staff say hey the built form of this one requires some discretion and we'll have two systems and things get assessed as where it goes. >> Yeah. So through the chair I would say the goal is to have all the buildings that fall into a category to have one service level because it's easier to manage operationally. Um obviously as I mentioned we've got anc inspection procedure during that inspection. we would flag any that have any issues and then determine whether or not um we need to modify or change anything. I you know what adds to costs in waste collection and waste collection contracts would be um differences inconsistencies right so I think what we want to do is move forward with a consistent program um so that um it can be uniform and when we go out with a contract we can say they all get this as opposed to some get this and some get that. Y in jurisdictions that have looked at that is the so it's just you're going to a system where current and again it works in a multi-residential you have a garbage room there's the infrastructure to support that you're just currently in those kind of six plexes if a municipality's done that transition I can imagine you have six households doing garbage independently um and the city's now asking those households to start communicating differently or sharing resources regarding collection where that might not be happening in these and just trying to thinking about that cultural shift or that social shift that requires collaboration at a different scale that's maybe not currently envisioned and there's not it's again there's not a garbage room per se and that's being asked to develop I'm assuming with the carts as a garbage area or some shared service for the building um for collection. So just wondering if we've seen that kind of transition pain or growing pain in other municipalities that have made this or how we can be aware of that transition. >> Yeah. So uh through the chair so if we're speaking of to you know what have been the issues in other municipalities um looking back at my professional experience I previously worked for the city of Toronto and one of the roles was this program um so rolling out from bags onto that uh onto the um the bin the garbage cart program um definitely um there's a lot of time involved in staff going out and looking at them and getting them um you put onto like the inspection as I mentioned onto the service. Um there were a few other issues involved in that particular program because it was a pay as you throw. That's kind of what they were moving towards which is not what we're doing here. Um but I would say that the end result was that the program was cleaner is better well received. Um the biggest issue I would say is storage as you mentioned for these smaller buildings. um 100 150 year old building was not designed for a garbage room in most of the most cases. Um so a lot of the storage is external at the back of the building, at the side of the building. That's the biggest issue that we're going to have to work with um building owners, property managers to to deal with. Um, you know, the the other issue that we we had at Toronto, which wouldn't be something that we have to deal with here is collection frequency because we allowed for say a building that didn't have much storage space, they could pay for two pickups a week as opposed to one pickup a week um to kind of help help with that. We have not gone through that. That's a pretty big change here at the city of Hamilton. So, we haven't gone through that, but those are ways that other municipalities have dealt with some of those some of those issues. Yeah. >> No, I appreciate the phased approach that staff are playing to kind of figure out those scoring pains as we go through it. Thank you. >> Before I throw the chair back to you, I'd like to put myself on the list for questions. >> Councelor Tatison, there you go. >> Just um you know, if you live in a detached home, you're accountable by putting one bag at the curb. How do you hold people that live in a multi-use dwelling accountable for only one bag a week? >> Yeah. So, uh through the chair, basically what we've done is we've come up with how many uh of these garbage carts are permitted for however many units are in the building. That's how many garbage carts they will get. And our bylaw does say that um does have a limit to how many units in a multi-residential building, how much garbage you can have. We basically looked at the bylaw. We've said this is how many um how many garbage carts you'll get for a 16 unit building which off the top of my head I can't remember the exact number but let's say it's five and five is the number and you won't get another one right if you need to if you have too much garbage or your residents in that particular building produce too much then you may have to take a trip over to a community recycling center to dump some of it off and pay the fees that are associated with that. Um, so yeah, we part of the design requirements says how big your room needs to be based on the number of carts you're going to get based on the number of units that that building particularly has. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks. Um, I'll go offline, but I'd like to see pictures and so forth of the carts because I'm not really getting an understanding of it. Okay. So, thanks >> 100%. And we do have some from our pilot program that we did do um previously. So, we do have some of those cards. Um, and happy to share some photos also that we we we have from the pilot. >> Thank you. Not seeing anyone else on the list at this time. Over to you, Jamie. Uh, Jamie McInt, senior project manager of Waste to begin your presentation on the bulk waste program. >> Thank you. Good morning. did it for you. >> Sounds good. >> Thank you. Um, again, my name is Jamie Macintosh. I'm senior project manager of waste programming and compliance. So, uh, we're going to talk about the bulk waste program review. Staff completed a review of the city's curbside bulk waste program earlier this year. Uh, as we saw, the review was identified as a short-term action item in the updated solid waste management master plan. And the purpose of the review was to provide a comprehensive look at the current program, identify if and where any improvements can be made, and ultimately inform decisions for the next waste collection contract. Next slide, please. Thank you. Uh so, taking a look at the current program, uh as I'm sure the majority of us know, it is free. Uh but residents are required to call in and schedule a collection. Uh they can also submit a request through the online portal. Uh there is a limit of four items per week and for multi-residential buildings that is eight items. We did conduct a municipal scan to compare Hamilton's program to the programs in 13 other municipalities or regions. And some things that stood out were uh only four of the 13 municipalities collected on a weekly basis. Um two of those four charged uh per item. Uh something else uh that stood out was 18 of the 13 or sorry eight of the 13 municipalities operated a notice-free model. So they don't have to call in to schedule. um they just set it out with their regular garbage on regular collection day. Next slide, please. Uh this is a look at the program activity for 2025. Uh the review analyzed over 52,000 customer service cases. Uh cases being any instance where contact was made with the city regarding the bulk program. Over 86% of those cases were requests to schedule collection. Uh of those requests, uh approximately 20% or um just over 10,000 stops had nothing set out at the curb uh despite it being requested. Uh the remaining cases consisted of missed collection reports from residents, improper setout reports from waste collectors and general questions and comments related to the program including uh what's accepted, how many items, things like that. Next slide, please. Uh so a large portion of the bulk program uh is uh mattress collection. uh approximately 18% of all requests for collection were for mattresses. And based on this, we conservatively estimated that nearly 13,000 mattresses were collected in 2025 alone. Uh to put that into perspective, if all of those mattresses were laid out, they would cover roughly five CFL football fields. Uh and even after long-term compaction, meaning once the landfill material has fully settled 30 years from now, uh the mattresses collected in a single year would still occupy space roughly equivalent to an Olympic size swimming pool. Uh mattresses also require more preparation than other bulk items. Uh the bylaw requires them to be wrapped and sealed in plastic uh to p to prevent the spread of contaminants and as a result they often involve more administrative work for staff uh as well as repeat trips for collectors. Next slide please. Thank you. Uh as you can imagine to operate the bulk program relies on uh many teams uh across the city. This includes the customer contact center, uh both city and contracted waste collections teams and the waste customer service and enforcement team. Uh the review estimated the average amount of time each group spends supporting the program on a weekly basis and in total approximately 192 staff hours are dedicated to the bulk program across all teams each week. This includes 120 hours a week spent collecting and approximately eight and a half hours a week handling calls through the con uh customer contact center. Next slide, please. Thank you. Um the total estimated cost to operate the bulk program in 2025 uh was just over $1 million. That included over $500,000 in contractor costs, almost $400,000 in internal staffing costs, and an additional $100,000 in fleet fuel and maintenance on the uh city bulk dedicated vehicles. Next slide, please. Thank you. Uh so the review identified identified several challenges including the significant amount of staff time required to operate the program. Uh a portion of that staff time is of course dedicated to scheduling collection requests. Something that we've learned that many peer municipalities have eliminated and there were numerous instances where collection was booked but no bulk was set out at the curb. Uh and these not out occurrences resulted in approximately $172,000 in contractor costs uh in 2025 alone. Um even though waste wasn't collected. Next slide, please. Thank you. Uh so next steps staff will use the comprehensive review to determine the recommended bulk service delivery model for the next waste collection contract and recommendations will be provided in a report to public works committee in early 2027 and I can take any questions. >> Thank you for that uh audit review. Are there any questions from committee members at this time? Otherwise, we can stay tuned for the report back um on next steps. Okay, >> not see any. Thanks so much, uh Jamie, for that presentation. We're going to go back to Ryan Kent um for our Hamilton Stadium waste diversion update and then our promotion and education update. >> Thank you. Uh this is a quick update on our uh Hamilton Hamilton stadium waste diversion. Um wanted to come back to this uh to the subcommittee here to give a little bit of an update on how that's been going. Um so we worked closely with uh speaking with staff running the the stadium um to get the numbers for 2025. So uh the information that we were provided both 30 events uh with were held there Tiger Cat games as well as Forge Games uh with approximately 320,000 attendees. Um the waste composition um at these events was approximately 45 tons of organics uh source separated organics sorry green bin uh I would say predominantly that's back of the house as opposed to the front of the house. um 28 tons of recycling um most likely a lot of that also being from cardboard from the back of the house um and then 23 tons of garbage um equating to a diversion rate of 76%. Um good numbers for 2025. Um you know I would say um staff want to look at a more granular level of what's actually in the garbage. Um, so this was basically weight of the material coming out as opposed to going into a heavy detail about let's go into the garbage and actually see what we have. But I think that that's an appropriate next step that we'll be looking at this year. I would caution that uh moving forward in 2027 that a risk to the diversion at the Hamilton Stadium would be um the recycling program that uh the stadium is obviously a non-eligible source um as uh defined by the province. So that's obviously a risk that um that we're looking at um for that diversion rate. Um but again staff will be looking at a little bit more granular level of how we can what's really coming out of the garbage specifically. Um obviously we know from our audits at single family homes, multire homes that um everything that is thrown out as garbage is not garbage. So there's obviously improvement. We'll look at that um and have some more detailed waste composition studies hopefully coming up if not this year than than in 2027. So, that's a quick update on this program and happy to take any questions. >> And it looks like councelor Tatterson has some more. >> I knew he would. >> I just I knew you would. >> I I'm sorry. I just like, you know, I'm a frequent attender at games and so forth at and I just, you know, like when you say front of the house, back of the house, you're talking about the majority of the organics and the recycling is generated behind the closed doors that I wouldn't see because when I am throwing my stuff out, there's very little diversion in my experiences from the people that attend games and so forth. >> Yeah. So through the chair um obviously we know that organics is the heaviest material coming out of there. Um I have seen um on numerous times that after a big event we've got I'm trying to remember the exact number but somewhere between 12 and 15 full green bin totes that are full. Like I said um a lot of that material is um back of house. it just wasn't used unfortunately, right? Um but is heavy and it's it's dense material either from food prep or or material left over. Um it's always a challenge doing the front of the house and trying to get unless we're in one of the boxes that we've worked on and the programs u that we put in into there in the last well the recent uh recent time. Um but front of the house where um you've got your containers and you've got, you know, 20,000 people there, it's a little bit more difficult to control it. Um and that and that that's a public space issue that we have whether or not you're talking about parks or a stadium or or on the street, unfortunately. But um we will certainly work to try and improve uh that program or work with the team that runs the the stadium over there. Yeah, I was just >> I was just going to say like, you know, a great place to start would maybe do the bo the boxes or the suites, right? Because like that's a controlled environment like you know only so much can go in. You can control it right there if you had you know that diversion uh I guess garbage right there as opposed to just throwing things in. So just um you know some suggestions from a guy who attends and sees and thinks, "Oh my gosh, we can do so much better and yet I get it that it's hard to herd cats." Okay. And and through the chair, we did put in place some new education material and containers and purchase containers for the stadium in the box or the suites. So um I think when we do a waste composition study, one of the things we like to do is identify the different areas, right? So we'd probably do a back of house audit. We would probably do a suites and then we would do the uh front of house or the yeah the concourse, right? I was going to say general population, but that's the wrong term to use for that. So, um, so yeah, we would definitely do that. Break it down into different areas, um, to see what it looks like differently, but I I think I know what we're going to see. Back house is the best, then into the suites, then probably a lot further down is going to be going to be on the concourse. Yeah. >> Uh, member Hartgrief, >> thanks, Ryan. I was just going to ask, are we doing um so I'm assuming a bunch of the organic waste back of house is is food? Uh is that do we do any donation food donation work with any of the local food rescue uh types of organizations to supply them with whatever's left over >> uh spec so through the chair uh specifically we don't but I think that's what we need to look at Peter because there are some of those uh because we >> please >> through the chair Angela Story a director of waste. So Peter uh back in uh 2024 we did have a delegation come forward because it was an employee that worked in the boxes at Tim Hortons at the time. And so as a result of that, that's where we ended up uh putting uh specific diversion containers in the suites. Um so that instead of people having to come, you know, there's a garbage can in the suites and then if you want to divert, you needed to come out into the common areas. So um that program has definitely been improved with those containers. The other item that the delegate mentioned was the food waste. Uh trays and trays and trays of uh you know unopened food or partly opened food, etc. when you come to those suites, you may um be aware of that. So, what we worked with um Hamilton Stadium now on is their vendor that looks after concessions and food. They're now um using a calculation to better determine how much um banquet style food should be provided and then any unopened trays of food is donated. So, we did have a report back to public works committee a couple of years ago on that and there's a specific uh number and the agencies that they work with. I think there was a couple of um charities or shelters that they're taking that food to. Um I think being a couple of years later, it's probably something that we could check in on, but just to confirm that we did uh we did work with them on that already. >> Perfect. And I saw the thumbs up in response to that as well. So, thank you for that director story. Um, and I think that brings us to our last item for information, which is our promotion education update. Back to you, Manager Kent. >> Thank you again. Just waiting for it to uh catch up here. There we go. All right. Thank you very much. Uh, yeah, last item here on the agenda, item 7.6. Six promotion education updates. So two uh updates here for for the subcommittee. Um the first is on our spring textile event uh textile donation event. So on Saturday, May 9th, staff hosted a spring textile donation event at the Dundas Community Recycling Center. Uh it was the second spring textile donation event staff have coordinated. We did one last year. Um once again, uh Salvation Army uh was our partner uh for this event. So these materials uh basically the majority of them or the the goal is to have them actually donated and reused by residents. Um if there are not great condition then they are recycled for industrial uses but the majority uh we were told by Salvation Army was was uh good for reuse. So you can see that picture on the right. Well it it definitely helped that it was a nice day as you could see in the picture. Um but you can see the containers that were filled um on that uh on that day. U to give you a little bit of reference of how we did compared to our 2025 event which was done at uh Canora the Canora Community Recycling Center we we definitely did uh a little bit better. So from Karp's perspective uh we increased from 100 last year to 165 this year. Um and the weight of the textiles collected was um about 1,900 kg last year and just almost um not quite 2300 kg this year. So um more cars, more weight. A little interesting that the weight per car I would say was down, but nevertheless the point here was to divert as as much waste and make sure that these textiles don't go into the landfill. And I think we we did a good job. So, um the outcome here is I I definitely think that um staff will be looking at doing more of these programs moving forward. They're obviously successful. Uh residents like them. We, you know, we heard from uh residents great feedback on on the day of. Uh the next item to give a little update on was our 2026 spring compost giveaway events. Um so uh this subcommittee is probably aware that every spring and fall the city gives away compost uh created from our leaf and yard waste program. Um again these programs are wellreceived by the public. People love coming to uh to pick up some some compost for for their gardens and their backyards. Um this past spring um we held the events at three different uh locations. Turner Park, uh, Joe Sam's Leisure Park, and Bayfront Park. Um, for multiple days, um, and the events were well attended. So, uh, you can see on the slide, we had almost 14,000 cars and, um, you know, a little over,00 tons of compost given away, um, for residents in the community. So, uh, it's great. It's always wellreceived. Um, another successful event. Um, and I will be happy to take um any questions that the subcommittee members have on either one of those items. >> Looking to see if there are any questions. Councelor Tatison, >> of course. Councelor Tatison, just the leaf and yard waste is currently, you know, taken out to the landfill site which is running out of space. So, can you just give a brief update on um future plans for what will be happening with that? Sure. And of course Ryan will respond to that. Uh um Rob will do it. All right. Great. I'll pass the Hi. Uh Rob Conley, manager of recycling waste disposal. So through the chair, um currently right now the leaf and yard waste processing pad at the Glenn Brook landfill site sits on a future landfilling approved landfilling cell. uh has to be moved in order for us to develop that cell as we uh progress through the uh filling of the landfill site. So uh right now we are working with um a procurement to um are developing specifications to tender out that operation to a third party um in the interimm while we go through the organic strategy. So right now we're working through that. Sometime in 2027 we anticipate that we will be hauling to a third party processor for our leaf and yard uh uh for our leaf and yard program uh while we go through the organic strategy. So um that's where we are right now. >> And then part of that contract will involve them giving back to the city for the free compost giveaways >> uh through the chair. That is one of the specifications that we are still going to enter or hopefully entertain that and and have compost come back for those uh for those giveaways. Yes, that is part of the uh the new program. >> Thank you. No more questions. >> Just going to do a pause. If there are no other questions at this time, I'm going to ask for a mover and a seconder to receive those presentations that we received. Member Nielsen um seconded by Member Hunt. Um, and if there's any opposed, we'll do. Not seeing anyone opposed to receiving that. Okay, that carries. Um, and then are do we have any notices of motion today from committee members? No notices. And do we have any other general information or other business? I have none noted in my road map, but I'll just do a bit of a pause. None. Not seeing any. That brings us to adjournment. There being no further business, this meeting is now adjourned at the time it is >> 11:20. >> 11:20. Thank you so much. >> The time it is.