City struggling to cut flow of waste going to landfill
Saskatoon’s efforts at throwing away less garbage appear to have stalled.
In 2016, city residents diverted 21.8 per cent of material, a slight improvement from 21 per cent in 2015, but well below the national average of 36.1 per cent in 2014, a city council committee report says.
The slight increase represents agonizingly slow progress toward the city’s goal of diverting 70 per cent of material from the landfill by 2023. A report detailing the city’s efforts to manage waste will be presented at Monday’s meeting of the environment, utilities and corporate services committee.
The report defends the 70 per cent diversion target and says, one day, the city aims to eliminate all waste. “This ambitious target shows a commitment by the city to establish new options for waste reduction, recycling, reusing and composting as well as continuously improving our existing programs,” the report says.
The City of Saskatoon’s recycling programs collected 28,000 tonnes of material in 2016, which was down from 29,633 tonnes in 2015. The diversion rate of 21.8 per cent was lower than the 22.5 per cent rate in 2014.
The report estimates about twothirds of solid waste produced in Saskatoon comes from businesses, industry and institutions like the university and the other third comes from residential sources.
Of the 51,900 tonnes of trash collected from single-family homes in 2016, 58 per cent was organic material like yard and food waste. The report says 77 per cent of material from single-family homes could be diverted with expanded composting programs.
Right now, the city’s organic collection and composting program is voluntary. In 2016, those paying an extra $55 per season for the green cart composting program reached an all-time high of 6,300. Only nine per cent of eligible homes subscribed to the program in 2016.
Those living in apartments, condos and townhouses produced 9,100 tonnes of waste in 2016. Of this material, 40 per cent was organic and compostable. This residential sector did a poorer job of recycling than those in single-family homes, with 17 per cent of material sent to the landfill that could have been recycled, compared to 10 per cent for the single-family sector.
The industrial, commercial and institutional sector had the worst record on recycling with 22 per cent of the material thrown out as trash that could have been recycled. Another 27 per cent of the waste produced by the non-residential sector was organic.
The city’s goal to divert 70 per cent of material from the dump is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to eliminate the need for a new landfill. In 2016, 155,230 tonnes of material was accepted at the landfill, which has been located south of the South West Industrial area since 1955. This was slightly down from the 157,091 tonnes dumped in 2015.
A city report last year said it would cost $26 million just to close the current landfill location with the added cost of maintaining the current site once closed and opening a new dump expected to be estimated in a report later this summer.
Efforts to divert material from the landfill in 2016 resulted in a reduction of 43,560 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent gases, the report says.
The report adds the city is planning initiatives in 2017 to increase waste diversion, including proposed policy changes, new programs and education.
The city is also moving toward establishing a recovery park facility near the landfill to help reduce the amount of garbage that winds up at the dump.
The city included $7 million toward establishing recovery park in its 2017 budget. The city is also considering seeking federal funding for $50 million in projects associated with recovery park, including $30 million to establish an organics processing facility.