City urged to adopt graduated payment scale for trash pickup

The cost of Edmonton’s garbage pickup isn’t fair, a resident said at city hall Thursday.

You pay the same whether your trash is piled high every week, or if you’re a senior with just half a bag, resident John Twyman told councillors.

He heads to Arizona for six months of the year and still has to pay the full bill, he said to city council’s utility committee, which is working to write a new 25-year plan for waste management.

Fixed bills don’t encourage anyone to reduce or conserve, he said, arguing for residents to be able to pay for different sized bins when the city switches over.

“It’s a combination of education — getting the message out — and hitting people in the pocket if they’re producing a lot of waste.”

On Thursday, committee members approved a new pilot project for this spring, rolling out green bins so 5,600 residents can separate organics and kitchen scraps from household garbage. But city staff will work out the details of the pilot, including bin size and price structure through public engagement this fall.

Committee members also voted to start a separate yard waste pick up, which would be voluntary for 2019. It would work similar to the current Christmas tree pick up, where residents set out their leaves and other easy-to-compost material on a set day in spring and fall.

In terms of bin size, the city could give everyone a 110-litre black bin for items that are not recyclable or compostable for the current rate. If people need a 240-litre black bin, roughly the size of 4.5 black garbage bags, they could pay a higher monthly rate.

It’s not something city officials have explored much to date, said branch manager Mike Labrecque. They just haven’t had time.

“We have so much change in the back of house now.”

City officials need to figure out if they can separate out and reduce the amount of organic waste going in to the garbage stream now because it will determine what size composter they build next. The current composter is failing, with a rotten roof that only allows it to be used during the summer.

That’s one reason Edmonton sent 61 per cent of its waste to the landfill last year, far short of the 10 per cent target.

Everything city officials have done so far has been focused on single-family homes and townhouses. This fall, they’ll also start talking with people in the commercial and institutional sector, including universities and malls.

There currently is no requirement for those in the commercial and institutional sectors to compost or recycle. Calgary recently made a bylaw requiring that, but leaves it up to each organization to find the most cost-efficient private facility.

“I can’t imagine why we can’t get to that same place,” said committee chairman Coun. Ben Henderson.

Henderson also saw merit to Twyman’s idea. “I’ve heard a lot of frustration from people ... who don’t put out a lot of garbage. There’s an unfairness factor because they ’re paying a lot extra for people who insist on putting out huge volumes,” he said. “(Waste management) is a utility, which means you should be able to control how much you use it and pay accordingly.”

Edmonton staff studied 23 other cities in Canada and every other city had a limit on the amount of trash a resident can put out. Edmonton currently has no limit. Many other cities also have tag programs, where people can purchase extra tags for the rare times when they go above the limit.

Labrecque said residents can also take extra garbage to the EcoStations or wait for a Big Bin event.