By Jessie Weisner (Twitter: @Jessie__Weisner)

Recycling, diverting and composting discussed in Rocky Mountain House

May 2, 2018 | 2:43 PM

Rocky Mountain House town council heard about the facts and benefits of recycling waste at their regular meeting on Tuesday.

Christine Seidel, Executive Director of the Recycling Council of Alberta shared Statistics Canada showing Alberta disposes of the most waste out of all provinces, and has clear issues with diverting it from landfills.

Non-residential waste makes up about 75% of that, consisting mainly of paper and cardboard.

On the residential side, organic waste makes up the majority at 51%.

Seidel says composting is one of the best first steps for municipalities, as it has low risk, a high diversion, and can be very cheap.

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Tammy Burke, Mayor of Rocky Mountain House supports the idea of composting.

“I would recommend composting. The organics, the household organics, definitely, I would like to see us do something in that area,” said Burke.

According to a study by Dr. Jeffrey Morris with Sound Resource Management, recycling not only uses much less energy than waste disposal, but it produces less CO2, and is less toxic for the environment.

“Hands down, recycling wins every time,” says Seidel.

Calgary, Chestermere and Strathcona County are just a few municipalities that have adopted a recycling, composting and waste disposal program, doing curb pickup either weekly or bi-weekly.