Over the years a number of municipalities have encountered challenges related to labour disruptions, contractor performance issues, or shutdowns at processing facilities associated with Blue Box program operations. While no one can anticipate every possible situation, a contingency plan can help prepare a municipality for when these challenges arise.
The CIF has developed a Guide for Developing a Waste Management Service Contingency Plan, which provides the principles, considerations and structure needed to prepare a basic contingency plan, tailored to the needs of a local municipality. While the focus of the guide is on Blue Box programs, its guidance is expected to be applicable to management of other waste streams.
The guide organizes service disruptions into two main types: short term and long term, which can be applied to either collection or processing services.
- Short term service disruptions include those that typically occur over one day to several months, such as a small fire or equipment failure at a facility, minor fleet breakdowns or a short-term labour walk-out.
- Long term service disruptions include those that extend for a prolonged period of time, such as the loss of a facility or dismissal of a contractor.
Municipalities preparing their contingency plans are able to copy, paste and customize the tables and templates from the guide. A Microsoft Word version of the guide is available upon request.
As this is a first draft of the guide, we encourage you to provide us with your feedback. The CIF is considering development of examples of actual contingency plans to supplement the guide and is interested in your feedback on the utility of such documents.
