A drop in the number of waste receptacles that you’re allowed to put to the curb each week is closer to becoming a reality.
The city’s Infrastructure and Operations Committee unanimously supported the plan on Tuesday evening.
The reduction would see the number of residential waste receptacles drop from three to two, as of January 1st, 2022.
Commercial users would see a reduction from 12 to ten.
Karin Pratte, Senior Facilities & Environment Engineer, told the committee waste audits show a lot of recyclables are still going to the landfill.
“These waste audits have demonstrated that residential waste being picked up at the curb is between 30 and 40 percent divertable material. This is a concern. This program is really intended to reduce that number,” she says.
“The program is intended to encourage individuals to refrain from putting materials in the waste stream that are divertable and can be in a different stream, such as textiles going to reuse stores or the recycling stream.”
Pratte also says the average user won’t be impacted by the service level change.
“The average (number of) residential waste receptacles at the curb is 1.5 while the average (number of) commercial waste receptacles is nine,” she says.
The estimated annual cost savings from the change is about $40,000.
“This is a very rough estimate,” says Pratte. “It’s very difficult to know what the cost implications will be because it’s highly dependent on the number of tags that will be sold.”
She says staff are suggesting no budget adjustments be done for 2022 to get a better idea of what the actual costs and revenues are.
Pratte also says the $40,000 figure includes any increase in costs associated with increased recycling.
“We have included costs associated with an estimated ten percent increase in recyclables and that is incorporated into the $40,000,” she says.
Pratte also noted that the reduction isn’t in garbage bags, but allowable receptacles.
She says each receptacle has a weight limit of 35 pounds and a volume limit of 33 gallons.
Full council still needs to give the green light to the reduction plan.
