Recycling is about to become a whole lot easier for Sundre's residents.
During council's May 2 meeting town officials discussed plans to introduce blue recycling carts, which people can load up with mixed recyclable materials like paper and plastic, to complement the compost and garbage bins already provided.
“Sundre will be joining the rest of Canada by instituting curbside recycling on a three-week rotation with compost and garbage,” said Jim Hall, the town's manager of operations.
Over a three-year rotation, the town will save more than $25,000 in cart pickup fees as well as nine less trips to the Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission's landfill. The latter point should be underlined, he said.
“That's the most important thing here, is reducing trips to the landfill.”
The major savings in tipping fees and fuel emissions will contribute to an environmentally-responsible approach that town officials want to move towards, he said.
The cost of the curbside recycling program is covered by Municipal Sustainability Initiative grant funding. By implementing the program, the reduction of tonnage going to the landfill every year will extend the facility's lifespan and thus save money in the long run, he said.
An information package will be attached to each cart when they are delivered to residents. That package will include a letter from the mayor, the new collection schedule, recycling tips as well as some information on the recycling centre and the landfill, he said.
As the recycling bins are expected to reduce the amount of waste people put in the garbage bins, the new collection schedule will be on a three-week rotation for all three bins — recycling, compost and garbage. Some people might have concerns about the change in schedule, but they are encouraged to try it out for a few months, he said.
“I've got a family of four, including two teenaged daughters that like to throw everything in the garbage, so I've been doing some testing to see how we're doing. And if you do things right, it works just fine.”
Laurie Porritt, the town's operational services department administrator, has researched other municipalities of varying sizes with similar programs and found the three-week rotation seems to be standard. If anyone still has concerns after trying out the new rotation for a few months, he or she can contact Porritt by email at [email protected], he said.
“We can start to look at that rotation if it's a huge, huge overwhelming issue.”
But the idea remains to reduce the amount of garbage going to the landfill, so as long as residents properly sort recyclables from waste, “we should be in good shape,” he said.
The carts are expected be delivered to the town shop before the end of May with delivery in early June. The first scheduled pickup date is Thursday, June 16. A total of 1,100 blue recycling carts were ordered and paid for by the grant funding, he said.
“There'll be no additional charges to the residents or charges on the monthly bill.”
Once the program is implemented and the carts rolled out, the procedure to replace or repair the recycling bins will be the same as it has been for the black and green garbage and compost carts, he said.
“If they're damaged after a particular time, then the customer would have to replace them at their cost.”
Town staff also had an idea to save more money in implementing the program by seeking volunteers to help deliver the carts to residents on Saturday, June 4. Half of the carts will be at the Sundre arena parking lot with the other half at the town office. Each unit takes about a minute to assemble, he said.
Once the carts have been delivered, a barbecue will be provided at the town's office for volunteers. People interested in volunteering are encouraged to contact Porritt, said a press release.
By the end of Saturday, June 4, “residents should have their carts and can begin recycling cardboard, plastic, tin, aluminium and paper items by putting them in the blue bin,” he said, adding that anyone who has not received a blue bin by that point can email the town shop at [email protected].
Mayor Terry Leslie said the enthusiasm and excitement that Porritt has for the project is “phenomenal. The fact that there's no additional charge for this service or no additional charge on monthly bills is a remarkable effort on the part of the staff.”
Reducing the number of trips to the landfill and subsequently increasing its lifespan “is just the right thing to do. We've talked about it for quite some time, and it's a very exciting project to move forward.”
Council carried Hall's presentation as information.
Officials also expect that the concerns residents have expressed about the recycling collection bins being consistently full at the new recycling depot off of Bergen Road on Sixth Street SE will be addressed, since significantly less recycling will need to be dropped by people there, said the press release.
Can Pak Environmental, which since October 2015 has maintained the waste pickup contract with the Town of Sundre, will provide the service, it said.
