Alberta’s urban leaders want the province to step up with cash to help communities keep household hazardous waste out of the dump.
On Nov. 18, Alberta Municipalities members voted 94.71 per cent in favour (519 to 29) of a motion that calls on the provincial government to provide bridge funding for household hazardous waste collection until a permanent extended producer responsibility (EPR) program for such waste is in place.
The motion was one of many debated at the organization’s annual fall conference at the Edmonton Convention Centre last week.
Household hazardous waste is toxic, flammable, reactive, or corrosive waste produced by households, reports the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (ARMA). Albertans safely disposed of some 762,870 kilograms of household hazardous waste between April 2019 and March 2020.
Prior the summer, almost all this waste in Alberta was disposed of at the Swan Hills Treatment Centre, typically through incineration. Municipalities split the cost to collect and transport the waste with Alberta Environment and Parks, with Alberta Environment and Alberta Infrastructure covering the disposal costs.
Alberta Infrastructure ended its support for Swan Hills as of June 1, 2021, and the facility no longer accepts household hazardous waste. Alberta Municipalities officials estimated that this decision would cost municipalities about $2 million a year.
In an email, Paul Hamnett, press secretary for the minister of environment, said Swan Hills’s operating costs had risen continuously over the years and now sit at about $30 million a year. The plant was designed to treat high-concentration polychlorinated biphenyls (HPCBs) and is an inefficient and expensive way dispose of household hazardous waste.
The province ended 30 years of support for household hazardous waste disposal and downloaded the cost onto municipalities without proper consultation through this cut, said Calgary Coun. Peter Demong, who introduced the household hazardous waste motion at last week’s conference.
“Some municipalities are now paying three times more than before” to dispose of this waste, he continued, leading some to question whether they should continue to offer this service.
The added cost to St. Albert was $19,000 this year and pegged at $30,000 next year, Mayor Cathy Heron said in an interview.
“And that’s going onto your utility rates,” she added.
Heron said the city could simply stop collecting this waste, but that is not a good option, as that would mean degreasers and other harmful products end up in the landfill.
EPR solution?
Alberta Environment Minister Jason Nixon said earlier this month that he plans to have the regulations in place for an EPR program covering single-use plastics, packaging, paper, and household hazardous waste by next spring. Under it, industry, not taxpayers, would pay for the collection and disposal of those wastes.
Demong said Alberta Infrastructure’s cut worked against the province’s moves to introduce an EPR-based system for household hazardous waste.
“We are so close to have a permanent [household hazardous waste] program. We need to work together and find a way to continue the existing service for our residents.”
A 2019 study commissioned by the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (now known as Alberta Municipalities) found that EPR could add 219 jobs and $16 million to Alberta’s economy a year, save municipalities some $105 million a year, and bring recycling services to small communities that can’t currently afford them, Demong said in a seminar at last week’s conference. It would also prevent an additional 71,900 tonnes of greenhouse-gas emissions — equivalent to keeping 15,000 cars off the road for a year.
Heron said household hazardous waste was ideally suited for EPR, as there was already an organization in place to deal with it (ARMA).
Heron encouraged city residents to safely dispose of household hazardous waste at the Mike Mitchell Recycling Depot. Visit stalbert.ca/home/waste/locations/recycling-depot/hazardous-waste for details.
