Consultation to begin on user-pay trash collection

Saskatoon residents should know in about a year what a proposed user-pay system for trash collection would look like, a city hall report says.

City council voted 7-4 in August to explore moving to a user-pay system, which is likely to feature variable pricing based on either collection frequency or cart size. Right now, the cost of trash collection is paid for through property taxes, which would be reduced under a user-pay or utility system.

“The next six months will see an unprecedented level of activity regarding changes to solid waste handling in Saskatoon,” the report says.

The proposal has proved contentious even before any details are known; many fear the cost of collecting trash will simply be added to their property taxes. Others say charging people directly for garbage pickup will result in illegal dumping.

The move to a user-pay system is one initiative designed to reduce the amount of material sent to the landfill. The other initiative is the proposed introduction of a citywide collection service for organic material, such as discarded food and yard waste. Organics account for about 32 per cent of the material sent to the landfill.

The City of Saskatoon has set a target to divert 70 per cent of material from the landfill by 2023. That poses a particular challenge in Saskatoon, which routinely ranks at the bottom among major Canadian cities in waste diversion, with just 22 per cent diverted last year.

The process is set to begin in January with public consultations. The possible implementation of a user-pay model would not happen until 2019.

The first phase of this approach, including public consultation, is expected to cost $450,000, which would be covered by existing surpluses.

The city is pursuing an aggressive approach to diverting trash for both environmental and financial reasons. An early estimate has pegged the cost for closing the existing landfill and establishing a new one at $126 million.