The city could be halting a single-use item prohibition, mandating three-stream waste collection for multi-residential buildings in St. Albert, and start preparing for the 2025 implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR) in Alberta, if council follows recommendations from city staff.
City administration presented council with a host of recommendations to consider moving forward as part of the city's waste minimization strategy during the May 9 committee of the whole meeting.
EPR, which has already been implemented in British Columbia and Ontario, will transfer the responsibility and cost for recycling collection and disposal from municipalities like St. Albert, to industry organizations responsible for producing the recyclable material, such as paper, plastic, and single-use items.
In Alberta, the industry organization designated to take on this responsibility is the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (ARMA), which is a non-profit organization established in 1992.
For years ARMA has managed and operated targeted recycling programs for items such as paint, oil, and tires.
As part of the EPR implementation, ARMA will register companies who produce recyclables, draft bylaws to determine fees chargeable to said companies, and be responsible for overall program enforcement.
Since the EPR program is still in development, city spokesperson Nicole Lynch said in an email that the city itself still has many questions for the provincial government as to how St. Albert will be affected, and more details will be made available later this year following the upcoming election.
One such question the city has, Lynch said, will be whether or not the city will still be responsible for operating the Mike Mitchell Recycling Depot after the EPR system is fully implemented.
“Mike Mitchell Recycling Depot is the only city infrastructure that collects recyclables, and curbside collection of recyclables is provided to our residents by a contractor and not through the use of city-owned equipment,” Lynch said.
The waste minimization strategy report states that the implementation of EPR will improve the accessibility of recycling for residents while reducing the costs paid by residents.
No local single-use item strategy
According to the waste minimization strategy report, the city recommends not to move forward with a single use item reduction strategy in St. Albert stems from the federal government's phased prohibition on the production and sale of single-use items, which took effect last December and will be implemented in phases over the next three years.
Council initially directed city staff to study what a local single-use item reduction strategy would entail back in 2019, with $96,000 in funding, however the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the study until the summer of 2022.
The recommendation also reflects the recent garbage audit a consultant completed for the city last June.
Just 0.67 per cent (or 2,673) of all items collected during the audit were single-use items, which was completed over 10 days with waste collected from 100 random homes.
“It is expected that the federal regulations will address approximately 31 per cent of the items counted during the (garbage audit, such as) grocery bags, cutlery, straws, and Styrofoam,” the report read.
Three-stream waste collection
Another recommendation from administration is that council should, through a bylaw update, mandate three-stream waste diversion for all multi-residential complexes in St. Albert.
Currently just 10 of the 136 multi-residential buildings in the city provide three-stream (garbage, recycling, and compost) waste disposal, however, according to the waste minimization strategy report, 61 of the remaining multi-residential buildings currently cannot be serviced by the city due to lack of curbside access, city operational capacity, and existing equipment restraints.
Many of the multi-residential buildings with waste collection services not provided by the city have ‘front load’ bins, which the city does not have the proper vehicles to service.
All single-family residences have had three-stream waste collection services provided by the city since 2011.
The committee unanimously approved the recommendation, which was one of only recommendations that required a vote.
City staff will begin drafting a bylaw amendment to introduce the three-stream system, and the amendment will be presented sometime early next year.
Administration told council that once, or if, the bylaw is put in place, staff will begin working with multi-residential property owners to determine how best to go about implementing the three-stream waste system, which will be phased in over time just as the city of Edmonton recently elected to do.
Prior to voting, Coun. Sheena Hughes reiterated that affected property owners need to understand that the implementation of the three-stream system would be phased in over time.
“Anybody who is currently owning a property and who may be currently panicking by this motion, they (need) to understand that we are bringing forward the bylaw, but not necessarily making everything 100 per cent as of (early next year),” she said.
Coun. Mike Killick, who recently told the Gazette he had planned to bring forward a motion to implement the three-stream system, said he was pleased to see the project move forward.
“Personally I'm very pleased ... to see this come forward as a recommendation directly from administration,” he said.
“We just have to do better across all streams, whether it's recycling and education to residents, we know we can do better,” he said, adding, “other communities seem to be doing better and St. Albert can do it.”
