Wil Andruschak

Anat Stapleton in the recycle centre she set up at her apartment building

Calgary is the last major city in Canada to get onboard with curbside recycling. Currently, 80 per cent of residential waste hits landfills, with only 20 per cent being diverted through the city’s recycling depot system (there are 50 neighbourhood drop-off depots). The city’s goal is to reverse these numbers. Its target for 2020 is to have 80 per cent of household waste diverted through recycling and composting efforts with only 20 per cent being sent to landfills. Part of the city’s strategy to get us there is the blue cart recycling program that will see the residential curbside pickup of items like paper, cardboard, glass, tin and plastics beginning this spring. However, unlike many other municipal recycling programs that incorporate multi-family dwellings, such as those in Edmonton, Vancouver and Ottawa, Calgary’s program will not.

A notice of motion passed at a May 12, 2008 council meeting states, “that administration take the necessary steps to ensure that the City of Calgary will not undertake the collection of recyclables from multi-family residences prior to 2020.”

Paula Magdich, Curbside Recycling Program leader for the City of Calgary, says “we’ll be monitoring diversion. If there isn’t progress in the multi-family sector, we’ll look at a city program.”

She says current community recycling depots will be made more convenient. By spring, the depots will begin accepting plastics, and items will no longer need to be sorted. She says the improvements are hoped to bring increased participation from those who live in multi-family dwellings. Magdich says the blue cart curbside recycling program is focused on the estimated 300,000 single-family homes up to and including fourplexes.

The problem is, there are almost 92,000 apartments and 45,000 townhouses in Calgary and thousands of other multi-family dwellings that will not be serviced by the recycling program. Also, the city has relied on citizens to take their recyclables to a network of 50 neighbourhood drop-off depots since 1992. Despite improvements to the depot system, the city has never been able to divert more than 20 per cent of waste away from landfills. Other cities, like Edmonton, which has had a comprehensive recycling pickup and dropoff program since 1988, are reaching a diversion rate of 60 per cent.

Magdich explains the situation is more complicated here, because private operators are responsible for much of the garbage collection from multi-family dwellings. “We’re leaving multi-family dwellings for the private sector to service,” she says.

When Stapleton went looking to get the 28 condos in her Bankview complex set up for recycling, she called three private recycling companies multiple times. Two never phoned back and one called back three months later. She was disappointed. “It’s a missed opportunity,” she says.

Instead, Stapleton, with the support of her condo board, approached the on-site maintenance worker and negotiated a rate to have recyclables from the residents taken to a nearby city depot.

The program’s been running for a few months now, and Stapleton says it’s a huge success. The condo board recently held its annual general meeting and Stapleton says, “People who attended were blown away with the program.”

The board purchased seven recycling bins and put them in the laundry room, so it’s convenient for residents to bring their recyclables down at the same time they do their laundry. The money for the bins came out of the board’s operating fund, and the monthly fee to remove the recyclables ($25 per month for the entire building) is funded through condo fees.

Like any new habit, Stapleton says recycling is catching on. She has noticed the volume of materials is increasing as time goes by, and residents begin to adopt recycling as a part of their everyday routines.

Since she began recycling, Stapleton has noticed the amount of waste she throws away has decreased as well. “I have peace of mind,” she reports, “I feel like I’m contributing — it’s so easy and totally affordable.”

The inspiration for Stapleton to begin recycling came from her best friend who lives in B.C. Like her friend, many British Columbians are avid recyclers with curbside recycling in major centres like Vancouver and Victoria as well as small towns like Rossland and Nelson. Stapleton has been brainstorming about how to get her building into composting and hopes to tackle organic waste this spring. For now, though, she hopes others won’t be held back by the city. “My hope is to inspire others who live in condos to take action and not to wait for the city,” she says.