Coun. Morgan Nagel is looking to repeal the town’s garburator ban as a move to push the town closer to its zero waste strategy mandate.
“Our community has a very real goal of having zero organics in our black bins and there will come a time in 2019 where if we ship organics to Calgary landfills we could face some heavy fines or be turned away,” said Nagel, who brought his motion forward at council on Feb. 12.
He maintains that garburator use encourages people to properly clean their plastics in their sink, rather than placing soiled food containers into the recycling – which are often not able to be recycled because they are not clean.
He added that garburators also provide residents more options to keep organics out of their black bins, helping them work toward the town’s goal of 80 per cent waste diversion by 2020.
The garburator ban was implemented in February 2016, following a report delivered by the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee (CEAC), and applies to new construction only.
The report indicated that garburator use places additional strain on water treatment plants through an increase of nutrient loads and a decrease in oxygen levels in waterways.
Following the ban, the Cochrane Eagle received multiple letters to the editor ranging from support of council’s decision to anger.
Coun. Nagel and then-mayor Ivan Brooker were the only opponents to the ban.
“Administration acknowledges that there are pros and cons to garburators. Should council give us the direction to repeal the garburator ban, we would do the appropriate research to bring back to council for their consideration,” said Rick Deans, senior manager of infrastructure for the town.
“No matter what the decision of council, we will always encourage residents to use their green bins to dispose of organics.”
A number of communities in Ontario, including Toronto and Ottawa, have implemented bans.
The City of Calgary does not currently have a ban. Its website encourages the use of green bins for organic materials and cautions against putting greases, fats and oil back into the water system.
Organics update
Fabrizio Bertolo, manager of waste and recycling services for the Town of Cochrane, presented an update to council on the town’s organics diversion Monday night.
As of July 2016, organics were taking up 68 per cent of black bin (garbage) space.
Bertolo gave a presentation last fall, imploring council to switch to biweekly black bin pick up, citing a 21 per cent reduction in organic waste in black bin over the summer; it was noted that this figure did not include any winter months.
The town is now working toward implementing organics (green bin) recycling in the estimated 1400 multi-family residences in town.
Last fall, info sessions were held and surveys were conducted with property managers and condo boards to collect data on needs and challenges.
The result was 100 per cent support for implementation of an organics collection program for multi-family units this year.
Properties with 25 units or less can opt for approval to self-haul of organics to an approved collection facility (Cochrane Eco-Centre). Around 25 per cent of multi-family units already have some type of organics collection system running.
Bertolo will return to council later this spring to amend the Waste Management Bylaw with a clear implementation plan by August 2018.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
All but Nagel voted in favour of directing Bertolo to submit a letter of intent to provide support for the province establishing extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies and programs.
An EPR would shift the funding and possibly the recycling, recycling collection, processing and materials marketing onto the producer.
This is said to result in cost savings for municipalities and is believed to incentivize producers to make and sell products that more durable, reusable and recyclable.
As far as Nagel is concerned, it’s just another tax and now is not the time.
“Alberta does not need another environmental tax – we just had a multi-billion dollar carbon tax added to the economy,” he said, adding that he could not support anything he felt had the potential to place Alberta producers at an unfair disadvantage to international producers or online competitors.
“These costs will just be pushed down to the consumer – just like bottle deposits or the carbon tax.”
Alberta is the only province “west of Quebec” where printed paper and packaging materials programs are funded in whole by taxpayers.
The City of Calgary is seeking letters of intent from municipalities in the region this month, to bring forward to the 2018 Alberta Urban Municipalities Caucus in March.
