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By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

REVENUE BEGINS APRIL 2025

Sylvan Lake town council authorizes interim CAO to move forward in Extended Producer Responsibility agreements

Oct 30, 2024 | 10:14 AM

Sylvan Lake should start seeing income for recycling its residents’ paper products in April 2025, as the town has taken another step to becoming a service provider under the province’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program.

In their regular meeting on Oct. 28, council voted to authorize the acting Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to finalize the details of the EPR Master Services Agreement and Statement of Work for paper and packaging products, and to execute those agreements before the November 30 deadline.

The EPR program was created by the Government of Alberta in 2022 in an effort to shift the cost and responsibility of recycling packaging and other materials to product producers and away from municipalities. It indicates two main recycling systems, one for single-use products, packaging and printed paper products (PPP) and one for hazardous and special products (HSP).

By participating as a service provider, Sylvan Lake will continue to operate its blue bin recycling program and local depots for residents, but will be compensated for the efforts by the Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO), Circular Materials.

In 2023, biweekly curbside collections for residential recycling cost the town about $233,049. The PRO has agreed to compensate the town for these costs, minus a negligible $86 deducted for non-qualifying costs.

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Costs will continue to be covered by the PRO moving forward with annual adjustments made based on the Consumer Price Index. The town has been told it will receive a pro-rated amount of about $186,000 in 2025 and about $248,000 in 2026, plus CPI and growth in the number of blue cart accounts.

A compensation offer for operating the town’s two recycling depots is expected by Nov. 15, 2024.

While these agreements for the PPP system are now on the road to being finalized by the CAO, negotiations regarding the HSP system are still in progress.

Both the PPP and HSP systems are expected to take off, and compensation should begin, on April 1, 2025.

After the program begins and the town starts receiving revenue, council will have an opportunity to decide how to allocate it. Options include reducing the utility rate, increasing services, or reallocating the funds for other purposes. Council will likely discuss these during the 2025 budget deliberations.