Support of residents needed to hit recycling goals: study
Edmonton’s goal of 90 per cent residential waste diversion from landfills is possible, but not without significant buy-in from citizens, says a report to be presented to city councillors in March.
The utility committee’s waste management strategy update shows planned and approved changes — such as bringing an anaerobic digestion facility and waste to biofuels and chemicals facility online — could take current levels of waste diversion up to 72 per cent from the 52 per cent recorded in 2016.
The rest, however, would have to come from changes in how the public handles their own garbage.
One of those changes could come in the form of a source separated organics program, where households would separate compostable materials, such as food waste, from their regular garbage.
That change could increase waste diversion by six percentage points, according to the report, while improving the quality of the city’s compost and reducing costs associated with turning waste into biofuels. The utility committee recommends implementing this change by fall 2020.
Another improvement could come from mandatory “grasscycling,” where residents leave grass clippings on their lawns and separate other yard waste from regular garbage.
The city’s Go Bagless campaign has encouraged locals to leave grass clippings on their lawns since 2011, and 58 per cent of Edmontonians surveyed in 2017 already do it.
Letting grass clippings degrade into your lawn adds nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus back into the soil and reduces the need for water or artificial fertilizers.
Yard waste such as branches or leaves would be picked up seasonally in the spring and fall when most yard waste is generated, and could be dropped off at an Eco Station throughout the year.
In 2016, the Edmonton Compost Facility processed 135,000 tonnes of residential waste, but more than half of that was inorganic material not suitable for composting that was sent to the landfill.
A waste services department study found 22 per cent of singleunit residential garbage and 25 per cent of multi-unit garbage is made up of food waste.
Even if all of these changes are implemented, the city would only reach an 81-per-cent residential waste diversion rate from the landfill.
Other options being considered include ending the single-stream recycling program, where recycling is sorted by hand, to instead have residents sort their recycling at home.
The single-stream recycling program Edmonton can’t keep up with recycling volumes as it stands, with 25 per cent of material being sent to the landfill because it can’t be sorted.
The city could also set limits on how much garbage would be collected from each home and how may opaque garbage bags could be used, allowing garbage collectors to see inside each bag, allowing them to avoid materials not suitable for disposal at the curb.