The Waste Management & Environmental Sustainability department has three branches: Environmental Risk Management & Compliance, Solid Waste Management Policy & Planning, and Solid Waste Operations.
Environmental Risk Management & Compliance Branch
The Environmental Risk Management & Compliance branch (located at 272 Ferndale Drive North) protects the City’s assets and the natural environment through:
- enforcing the Sewer Use By-law and Site Alteration By-law
- administering the Water and Wastewater Billing Exemption program
- providing environmental spill response 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- conducting sewer use inspections
- collecting wastewater samples associated with Compliance programs and Overstrength Surcharge agreements
- providing comments and guidance on development applications, infrastructure projects and legislative changes
- monitoring City creeks and contaminated sites
- monitoring Historic Waste Sites
- issuing Discharge Agreements, and
- assisting the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) with the West Nile Virus Larviciding (WnV) program and the Recreational Beach Water Quality Sampling program.
The branch also ensures all public and private development projects are designed and built to support a sustainable community. Staff also proactively address activities that are significant threats to the drinking water sources through risk-based compliance and strategic initiatives. These objectives are completed through the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, Source Water Protection Policies, and Internal Policies.
The Environmental Risk Management & Compliance Team also implements the City’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.
Solid Waste Management Policy & Planning Branch
The Solid Waste Management Policy & Planning branch works to rethink approaches to waste management, to ensure regulatory compliance, and to foster a culture that is sensitive to our local and global environmental needs. Current environmental sustainability programs include:
- Implementation of Circular Economy values, philosophies, and programs;
- Management of the transition of the Blue Box Program to producer responsibility under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016
- Data management for City waste programs;
- Waste audits; and
- Environmental education and promotion.
Waste audits include the collecting, sampling, and analyzing the composition of garbage, recycling and organic waste allow the City to instruct, guide, support and measure the success waste collection, processing, and education programs provided throughout the City. The audits focus on four areas of municipal waste collection:
- Single Family Curbside Collection Services;
- Multi-residential Waste Collection Services;
- Public Spaces (BIA, Parks, Roadside and Waterfront Locations); and
- Waste and Recycling Depot (Located at the Barrie Landfill).
Solid Waste Operations Branch
The Solid Waste Operations branch (located at 272 Ferndale Drive North) is comprised of three sections:
- Waste Collections
- Waste Receiving
- Waste Disposal
Responsibilities include:
- curbside waste collection contract management and oversight;
- receiving and disposal of Barrie solid waste within the active Landfill cell;
- implementation and oversight of waste diversion and recycling programs in place at the Barrie Landfill site, including the Household Hazardous Waste Depot;
- ensuring compliance with environmental monitoring and mitigation measures required by the Landfill Environmental Compliance Approval as issued by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks; and
- the operation, maintenance, and repair of the environmental controls and monitoring equipment in place at the Landfill.