https://www.thestar.com/calgary/2018...o-revenue.html
Quote:
CALGARY — Homeowners are tossing garbage and non-recyclable goods into residential blue bins at an unheard of rate in a city that has mostly embraced the program.
Over the past year, the rate of contamination in the blue recycling bins has spiked from roughly seven per cent in recent years to a new normal of 10 to 15 per cent, according to the city.
That’s well below contamination rates found in other Canadian cities, like Toronto and Edmonton, where roughly one-fifth of material tossed in blue bins is, in fact, garbage. But the trend is alarming and one the city wants to reverse.
“We want Calgarians to participate; they’re great recyclers,” said Sharon Howland, leader of program management with waste and recycling services. “We just need people to make sure that they’re putting the right materials in the cart.”
A report headed to the city’s utilities and corporate services committee Wednesday says contamination of recyclables is a “well-documented trend” in many cities, but Calgary’s decision to scale back garbage collection to every other week has made the situation worse.
Further, introducing “a variable pricing approach to our Black Cart Program is also likely to increase the amount of improperly sorted materials in blue carts,” administration warns in the report.
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https://www.thestar.com/calgary/2018...o-calgary.html
Quote:
CALGARY — City hall is laying the groundwork to shift away from flat-rate garbage collection to a system where households can chose the size of their black cart based on need.
The plan won’t be revealed until later this spring, but early indications suggest the city intends to offer multiple sizes for black bins (and charged accordingly) and introduce a tag-a-bag system, where households are charged extra for waste that doesn’t fit in the container.
The city is considering rolling out a similar program for blue and green recycling and composting bins at a later date.
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This might make people put their bins away into their yard or garage so that the neighbors dont stuff extra garbage into others' bins.
And theyre still talking about a plastic bag ban. Less plastic,biodegradable grocery bags just means that Ive been using more thick plastic kitchen garbage bags. It costs me more but theyre more useful bags; the problem is theyre definitely not biodegradable.
The big problem is still excess packaging. Charging the consumer for garbage pickup is the long way around to try to reduce wasteful packaging. Often with a bigger item, there is so much cardboard and styrofoam that even after breaking the box down, the blue bin is filled with cardboard and the styrofoam fills the black bin which gets picked up only everyother week. So then the citizen can decide to keep the styrofoam and throw it out in the following weeks or just toss it in the blue bin.