Corey Pierce

In April, city hall approved the launch of a city-wide curbside recycling program that will see recyclables picked up door to door in the same manner as garbage. Once a leader in recycling, when it started the current recycling depot program in the early ’90s, Calgary has since lost a step on other Canadian municipalities. The new Curbside Recycling Program (often referred to as the blue box program) is to begin in 2009 and should bring Calgary back up to speed.

The key feature of the new program is that it makes recycling easier. The fact that recycling will no longer require the separation of the various commodities (paper, glass, metal, plastics) and the cursory trip to the nearest drop-off depot will make it more attractive to many Calgarians. Based on the results of a pilot project completed in three Calgary communities, the city is expecting a significant increase in the uptake of recyclables that would have otherwise ended up in city landfills.

“We expect to probably double our take that we are currently taking right now,” explains Dave Griffiths, director of Waste and Recycling Services. “And we may be being a bit conservative there. Last year we took in 36,000 tonnes out of our drop-off depot program. We expect, at a minimum, to increase that up to at least 60,000 tonnes. So it's another big bite.”

Another feature of the program that will see more going to the recycle bin and less to the garbage dump is that a wide range of plastics will be permitted in curbside blue boxes, rather than just the plastic pop and milk bottles that are accepted now.

“Municipalities are all trying to push recycling trends higher,” explains Griffiths, “and a lot of that is moving to the single streams, i.e. making that easier for the resident. Another part of that is by adding as many materials to the mix as you can.”

In the past, plastics recycling was held back by a lack of facilities available to process the mixed plastics that municipalities could collect. As the emphasis on recycling has grown since the ’90's, technology has kept pace, allowing a larger and larger percentage of society's waste to be transformed into useful products.

“In the early years,” says Griffiths, “the power of our drop-off program and the programs that started out in Ontario and then moved across North America glutted a number of the markets. There wasn't enough capacity in the early years when they were starting up, in fact, that could consume all that paper.” Infrastructure for de-inking used paper to create recycled newsprint was limited, Griffiths explains.

“There's a big desire on the part of the public to have a broader range of plastics recycling,” he continues. “We think people are going to be happy to see that the markets are going to be there to support that. So it's a very important step for us, overall. The technology in processing has really come a long way in recent years.”

In conjunction with growing markets for recyclables, Griffiths has seen a continual shift in public perception. As sustainable development becomes a larger priority, a completely different way of looking at waste will be required.

“I hate to even call them wastes,” Griffiths says. “These truly are resources. I always try to put it that I've never succeeded in selling a kilogram of garbage. What we sell to the marketplace out of those depots is someone else's resource or input into making their product... the next issue of Fast Forward.”

Griffiths considers educating people to be one of the most important tasks in the future of waste management. Being conscious of what products and packaging are brought into the home is as important as thinking about what is thrown out. And people are often unconscious of the consequences of their production of household waste. For example, it is often overlooked that household organic wastes, such as food scraps, cause significant amounts of the greenhouse gas methane when buried within a landfill.

Collection of organic waste was part of the city's pilot for the curbside recycling program, however, the city decided against including this option when the program is expanded city-wide. Those households wishing to prevent these wastes from generating methane in the city’s landfills will have to continue composting at home until the next update of the recycling program, when it is likely the city will include option in its program.

Another initiative under consideration is a pay-rated garbage collection system like that recently implemented in Vancouver, in which those who dispose of more garbage pay a higher rate. It's designed as a financial incentive for households to send less to the dump.

“The point there is that if you're generating less garbage and maximizing your recycling opportunities, then you reap the benefits and you pay a cheaper rate,” say Griffiths. “It's been a topic for discussion with council, and we've been asked to report to council on that in spring of next year. We're keen to see what impact this program has in Vancouver.”