Langley City residents throw out about two million kilograms of garbage each year.

The figures were presented to City council at its July 23 meeting for it to decide whether to extend its garbage and recycling contract with Emterra Environmental for two more years, beyond its December 2012 expiration or go out to tender.

Council voted to extend the contract, with garbage and recycling pick-up every two weeks, and weekly green waste collection with household organics. It comes with an estimated $11,000 cost savings.

Ted Schaffer was the lone councillor voting in opposition.

"I thought it was a good idea, but personally, I thought we were taking a service away, going biweekly," Schaffer said.

Recycling amounts seem to have declined in recent years. The amount in 2009 was 1,768,315 kilograms recycled. That figure fell to 1.54 million in 2010 and 1.41 million in 2011.

The amount of green waste created by residents seems to be more consistent (958,477 kg in 2009, 1.08 million in 2010, and 1.12 million in 2011. Staff suggested six options to keep costs down.

"No change in services and does not include household organics collection: Providing additional organics collection has the potential to reduce costs as waste will move from the garbage stream at $121/tonne to the organics stream at $53/tonne," the report said of option one.

Option two was the same level of service but no green waste collection December through April, when amounts are lowest.

That green waste would end up in the regular garbage, which could increase City costs for tipping fees but save money on fewer trucks having to go out.

Option three was the same as the first, but adds mattress collection and disposal to Large Item Pick-Up (LIPU) service. The report included what happened in neighbouring communities.

"The City of Surrey experienced a sharp increase in illegal dumping of mattresses so it has reversed its position and now accepts mattresses through the LIPU program. The Township of Langley does not accept mattresses through the LIPU program and has no plans to include it," staff reported.

Option four included the same level of service as option one, adding household organics to weekly green waste collection.

"Including the household organics would be a value added service that the City is required to provide as part of the Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan," according to the report. "It is expected that there will be a reduction in tipping fee costs due to the differential in garbage tipping fees ($121/tonne) and green waste ($53/tonne). The tipping fee savings are an estimate only and are dependent on the quantity of material diverted from the garbage stream. Moving household organics into the green waste will require a communications program."

Option five offered the same style of pick-up as Surrey: bi-weekly garbage, bi-weekly recycling, and weekly green waste collection with household organics. The City would save on tipping fees.

Option six was for pickup to be every two weeks for garage, recycling and greenwaste (including household green waste).

"The City's disposal costs could remain at 2011 levels if we can achieve a 20 per cent diversion of household organics from garbage to green waste," the staff report said. "The net result is that for every one per cent point increase in diversion from garbage to green waste, the tipping fees for the City decrease approximately $1,350."

The complete staff report is on the City website.

hcolpitts@langleyadvance.com