Waste Management Policy Development and Research

753— Update on Sustainable Financing Issues In Support of Green Bin System Financing for City of London (2010)

Kelleher Environmental prepared a report for City of London in July, 2010 to provide research support for options to finance the Green Bin and Zero Waste Programs.  Experience in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg was reviewed and lessons learned which could be applied to City of London were identified.

738—Region of Niagara Sustainable Financing Options (2009 – on-going)

Kelleher Environmental, in association with Robins Environmental, has been working with Region of Niagara to identify sustainable financing options for the regional solid waste system, and approaches to sharing the costs of the waste management system with the twelve area municipalities.

719—City of Vancouver Solid Waste Management Fee Review (2008-2009)

Kelleher Environmental, in partnership with Sound Resource Management Group, recently carried out a detailed review of fee setting options for the City of Vancouver, which implemented a sophisticated variable rate pricing system for garbage, recycling and leaf and yard waste collection in 2006.  A range of linear and non-linear cost of service options were reviewed and analysed, including the potential diversion impact of each option.  A report was presented to Council in Fall 2008 using the results of our study.  Case studies were developed for Seattle, San Jose, Oakland, St Albert, Santa Cruz and Redmond, Washington as part of the project.

713—Solid Waste Management System and Financing Review, City of St. Albert, (2008) Kelleher Environmental are part of the Sonnevera team was involved in a comprehensive review of St. Albert’s waste management system infrastructure and financing system.  More specifically, our role was to review and analyze the current Pay-as-you-throw system and pricing structure and identify several alternative options to the current approach.  One of the challenges was to simplify the current six subscription options provided to residents to lower the overall City administrative burden, and make the program self financing while maintaining the incentive structure to promote waste reduction.

712— Subsidies and Discounts for Low Income and Senior Households for Waste Management Services, City of Calgary (2008) Kelleher Environmental research and wrote a report describing how communities provide discounts or subsidies to low income households and senior households for garbage, recycling or composting service.  A literature review was carried out and detailed interviews were conducted with ten communities in North America that offer subsidies and discounts to their residents.

 711—Estimated Impacts of City of Toronto Waste Management Levy on Toronto Community Housing Managed Properties, Toronto Community Housing  (2008)                                                                Kelleher Environmental were retained by TCH to conduct a thorough review of the financial impact of Toronto’s new multi-family levy on its 320 multi-family properties.  As part of the review, an evaluation was carried out of the amount of garbage and recyclables being generated by each property unit and the estimated financial impact of waste generation and diversion rates on the levy each building owner would have to pay.  The report provided a number of recommendations to help TCH deal with the new levy and reduce its impact over time.

696—Incentive Approaches to Increase Recycling in Single Family Households, City of Calgary (2007)Kelleher Environmental carried out a project to identify innovative programs to increase recycling rates in single family households.  The project focused on a variety of incentive based approaches including rewards (i.e. RecycleBank and Berkley’s Cash for Trash program), rebates (i.e. Lethbridge’s policy of rebating residents for any excess revenues from recycling), outreach (i.e. Seattle’s Friends of Recycling program) feedback (Portsmouth report card) and pledges (Toledo’s pledge program). 

687— Stewardship Ontario Sustainable Financing Project (2006-2007)
Researched various aspects of utility and other financing mechanisms for solid waste management, and development of a “How To” manual for Ontario municipalities who want to change current financing arrangements.

683—City of Calgary Sustainable Waste Management Financing Report ,Alberta, Canada (2006) In 2000 and 2002 Kelleher Environmental staff carried out extensive research on different user pay and bag limit approaches throughout Canada and North America and prepared two reports describing how municipalities throughout North America finance solid waste management.  The reports outlined options for City of Calgary.  In 2006, Kelleher Environmental updated the previous research and surveyed large municipalities across Canada and the US to identify how their waste management systems were financed.  The report prepared for City of Calgary outlined a number of potential options for the city to move from tax based to sustainable financing approaches.

646-Financing Options To Reach 60% Diversion of Ontario Waste, Ministry of Environment (Aug 2004) Kelleher Environmental designed and facilitated a 1-day workshop with industry representatives and prepared a report outlining financing options to reach Ontario’s 60% diversion target.  The report was used to develop the Cabinet Submission in November, 2004

618—Getting Rid of Garbage: Why Those Who Create It Should Pay the Most for its Disposal, C.D.Howe Institute, Toronto, Canada (June 2005)
Researched and wrote a commentary paper outlining the rationale for full cost pricing for residential waste management services. Measured impacts of full cost or variable rate pricing on waste diversion behaviour were described.

400—User Pay Briefing Paper, Valpak, UK (2002)
Prepared a briefing paper on user pay systems which was submitted to the British government as part of its policy development forum in spring, 2002.

400—City of Toronto User Pay Study, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2001)
Kelleher Environmental staff (as RIS Ltd) carried out a research study which assessed the before and after impacts of user pay and bag limit systems on waste recycling, composting and disposal in 25 municipalities in Canada and the US, in an effort to estimate potential impacts of different policies for Toronto.