We’re sending more trash to the dump than to recycling

City hall close to completing first phase of new solid-waste plan to protect landfill

Residents with curbside garbage collection have been diverting just under half of their household trash to recycling boxes and green bins as the city moves closer to developing a new solid-waste master plan that could force people to be more environmentally conscious.

The city released the 2019 waste data Thursday as it completes the first of three phases to develop the new plan, which will ultimately aim to protect the municipal landfill from reaching capacity and encourage more people to recycle. The Trail Road dump is currently projected to reach capacity in 2041.

The first phase paints a picture of the city’s management of household garbage.

The municipal government is in charge of collecting and managing household waste. City hall doesn’t manage waste generated by the industrial, commercial and institutional sector.

Of the 338,564 tonnes of waste generated by households and municipal facilities in 2019, 24.6 per cent was organic waste and 18.2 per cent was recyclable material. The trash collected each week at the curbside accounts for about 82 per cent of the total volume of waste, with the rest coming from multi-residential buildings and city facilities.

The city’s 2019 waste-diversion rate for curbside collection was 49 per cent. The diversion rate for multi-residential buildings and city facilities was 17 per cent. The city pegs the overall diversion rate at about 43 per cent in 2019.

Many categories of city facilities aren’t great at recycling. Arenas, for example, only divert 4.3 per cent of waste to recycling programs. Recreation centres divert 29.1 per cent of trash.

There are some bright spots, however; municipal long-term care homes divert 60.9 per cent of trash to recycling programs.

Of all the garbage that went to the municipal dump in 2019, 58 per cent was “wrongfully disposed of,” the city says. The overwhelming majority of that waste could have been put in the green bin.

Nichole Hoover-Bienasz, a program manager in solid-waste services, said the city has seen green bin tonnages increase and it’s been a “promising trend.” The city started allowing people to put their organic waste in plastic bags last July.

However, Hoover-Bienasz noted the city isn’t sure how many people are using their green bins. The city is planning a citywide green bin participation study this year, she said.

Along with researching recycling programs, the city is monitoring technologies that process residual waste. The city last toyed with non-landfill residual waste processing when it piloted Plasco Energy Group’s technology, a partnership that failed in 2015.

Coun. Scott Moffatt, chair of the environment committee, said he would be open to have companies pitch their technologies to the city and have them compete for the business. The city shouldn’t go all-in with one company like it did with Plasco, Moffatt said.

The city released details about the first phase of the solid-waste plan through a video briefing with councillors and staff since committee meetings are being reserved for matters with sensitive statutory timelines during the COVID-19 crisis.

The second phase of the plan, which will come up with waste-management options, will last until around mid-2021. The final phase will end with a draft plan presented to council in early 2022.