By Sheldon Spackman

searching for long-term solutions

Local municipalities watching recycling industry challenges closely

Jun 4, 2019 | 11:13 AM

The City of Lacombe’s decision to end curbside recycling pickup highlights the difficulty municipalities are experiencing in light of significant challenges for Canada’s recycling industry.

Those challenges, which stem largely from decisions by China and other countries to stop accepting recycling materials from Canada, were a large factor in Lacombe ending its curbside recycling program as of May 31.

Other local municipalities are keeping close tabs on the situation, including The City of Red Deer who rolled out black and blue cart collection for 30,000 households just five weeks ago.

“Some of the national coverage has really brought up some important things to talk about,” says Janet Whitesell, Waste Management Superintendent.

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“Hopefully, it brings things to where items are being recycled closer to home. Hopefully, it helps to build capacity within North America to take the cardboard and plastics that are having difficulty being shipped overseas.”

Whitesell feels the timing of Red Deer’s roll out of black and blue carts was somewhat fortuitous.

“It’s given us the opportunity to reinvigorate the education about what goes into which carts. And by removing glass, while it’s not something residents were excited about as they liked being able to put into their blue box, it’s removing something that was causing challenges.”

The City of Red Deer’s cart collection contract with Waste Management Canada is for five years with an option to extend for another two years beyond that.

The Town of Penhold currently collects garbage weekly and recycling is collected biweekly using private contractor Environmental 360 Solutions (E360S, formerly Can Pak) – the same contractor the City of Lacombe was using.

“The Town has been monitoring very closely the happenings in Lacombe because we know there have been problems,” notes Penhold Mayor Mike Yargeau. “Before the winter we toured the facility and were assured at the time that our recycling was still getting recycled and going to the proper place. But now it seems like maybe it’s not, so it’s definitely something the Town is monitoring.”

Yargeau describes the current state of recycling throughout Canada as “terrible.”

“We need to do a lot of work on how we recycle, what we recycle and where it goes because it’s not working right now. The more we look into this issue with Lacombe we’ll probably find ourselves in the same boat. There are definitely recycling issues in the province,” he added. “There has to be a Canada-made solution so we can handle our garbage right here.”

The Town of Innisfail is rolling out black and green carts for the first time this week, also through E360S (three-year contract with two additional one-year extension options), but is sticking with blue box residential recycling for the time being.

“Council did look at also adding a blue cart for dry recyclables – boxboard, cardboard, tin cans, and those sorts of things – but it did not make fiscal sense at this time,” explained Rod Fraser, Director of Operational Services for the Town of Innisfail.

In order to encourage more recycling and reduce waste sent to landfill, Innisfail is no longer charging residents to drop off recycling at the town’s transfer station.

In Sylvan Lake, where automated curbside recycling has recently been implemented through a new contract with Waste Management, Communications Officer Joanne Gaudet says they’re still working towards a long-term, sustainable solution.

“We were approached by Fogdog Energy to enter into an agreement for a No Landfill Disposal facility. So we put off making any major changes to our smaller cart curbside recycling collection,” she explains.

“We have moved forward and formalized plans to collaborate with Fogdog Energy. However, we do anticipate a two-year gap between now and when Fogdog would get approval from Alberta Environment and Parks.”

Gaudet says a service and land lease agreement has been reviewed by both parties, with the Town confident the Fog Dog facility would be an innovative waste management solution that protects public interests.

“Barring any roadblocks and we get approval for the facility, we then would move to that No Landfill facility where we would be recycling everything at that point,” she explains.

The Fog Dog facility would convert regular waste, recycling and compost turned into carbon “fluff” and later sold for conversion into hydrocarbon products such as diesel and gasoline. Virtually any form of waste – excluding glass, metals and some hazardous waste – would be accepted.

Sylvan Lake’s current contract with Waste Management expires in October 2020.

In Blackfalds, which also has a contract with E360S, Communications Co-ordinator Dean Turnquist anticipates their recycling program to be reviewed by council in the coming weeks.