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Surrey council approves waste collection contract

Council awards 7-year contract to GFL Environmental Inc. for curbside residential waste collection
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Outside council chambers inside Surrey’s city hall. (File photo)

Surrey city council voted Monday night to award a seven-year contract to GFL Environmental Inc. for curbside residential waste collection.

The seven-year term will begin on April 1, 2023. A report before council by Scott Neuman, Surrey’s general manager of engineering, recommended that council also approve an option for the City of Surrey to “unilaterally extend” the contract by an additional three years with an “annual base cost” of $17,622,447 plus GST in the first year. This was also approved.

Neuman told council the 2023 start date will allow the company to order new collection trucks as required in the request for proposals.

“Based on the size of fleet required in Surrey, waste haulers typically require approximately 12 months to order, manufacture and receive new waste collection trucks, and with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting supply chains, the timeframe will allow a buffer should manufacturing delays occur,” Neuman explained in his report.

The collection area is divided into two zones, with each containing roughly 52,000 single family households and 140 apartment buildings. The RFP requires the waste collection trucks to be powered with RNG, or renewable natural gas, that’s produced at the Surrey Biofuel Facility at 9752 192 St., next to the Surrey Transfer Station.

This, Neuman explained, will help the City of Surrey to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions as renewable natural gas has a “significantly lower carbon emissions factor than compressed natural gas, which will result in near zero GHG emissions being released from waste collection vehicles.”

The headquarters of GLF, North America’s fourth largest “diversified environmental services” company, is located in Toronto.



About the Author: Tom Zytaruk

I write unvarnished opinion columns and unbiased news reports for the Surrey Now-Leader.
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