A buck and a dime won’t buy much these days — chances are you can cobble together more from loose change in your couch. Yet this figure, which represents the monthly savings potential from St. Albert’s new waste collection scheme, is a symbolic step in the right direction towards rewarding environmental responsibility and public education.
City council endorsed the new waste collection rates Monday and though the figures won’t be finalized until the bylaw is given final reading later this month, it essentially rewards households that throw out the least garbage with a subscription rate of $1.10 for the smallest toter (equivalent to one bag a month), $2.20 for the mid-sized toter (two bags a month) and $9 for the largest toter (four bags). That represents a savings of $1.10 for the least wasteful versus the original toter rates, and an increase of 20 cents for households that produce the most trash, costs that are on top of the $16.69 flat fee for garbage, curbside recycling and organics pickup.
Although the monthly savings aren’t a lot, entrenching the lower rates in a bylaw sends a clear message about the value of recycling more and producing less waste. While most of us are already in the habit of recycling and have been for years, chances are there’s room for improvement in most households and an incentive, however slight, can help provide a nudge in the right direction. Plus, charging heavy trash-producing households more follows a user-pay philosophy that’s based on usage rather than per capita figures, a fair and equitable scheme that ensures in part that one section of the population isn’t overly subsidizing the other.
There are clear benefits for St. Albert just from ordinary families taking the extra effort to properly sort waste while reducing overall output. The city’s landfill diversion rate — the percentage of trash that otherwise would end up in the landfill — is at 41 per cent, based on 2008 data. Judging by the experiences of other municipalities in the region, the diversion rate is estimated to reach 61 per cent once the organics program kicks in June 1. That might not translate into dollars saved given the cost of disposing trash and organics is roughly comparable, but that’s a significant amount of waste not taking up space in the landfill, contributing to the overall greening efforts of St. Albert.
The more aware St. Albertans are about what they put into the landfill and the effects consumption habits have on the environment, the greener our botanical arts city becomes, for which we’re all better off. That means eating up less power in our homes to keep the lights on, burning smaller amounts of fuel at strategic times to keep warm, using more environmentally sustainable products in and around the home, spewing fewer emissions into the air while idling vehicle engines and when possible, using alternate modes of transportation like public transit or walking. These are all simple, basic steps that on the surface might not seem like they’ll make much difference, but added together will make our city a greener garden capital.
