Yellow and blue bin debate

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

During the April 12 Committee of the Whole Meeting, Strathmore Town council discussed an idea to potentially add recycling bins to the local waste collection program.

The town currently collects from green compost bins and black waste bins, but may consider the addition of blue, mixed recycling bins, and yellow paper products and packaging bins. 

Utility Strategist, Colleen Parken, who presented the town’s waste services update during the meeting, suggested the yellow bins may be more worthwhile to consider, as they could be more cost-effective. 

“When we look at the volumes for paper products and packaging per year, we can see this is a large volume of materials. As restrictions continue to be put in place on plastics, we foresee this volume to trend upwards,” she said. “Paper products are typically the recycling materials which have the best market and can even be cost-neutral at certain times. Plastics, metals, (and) glass, however, are items that have limited markets and therefore are a cost to the town to provide those services.”

The discussion has not been formally brought before council as of publication regarding their final decision. The project schedule to implement yellow collection bins boasts a deadline of July 5 to submit a proposal to council. 

Should the town approve the proposal and move forward with the distribution of, and regular collection from yellow bins, the service would be scheduled to begin on Jan. 1. 

Due to the higher potential to be a direct cost to the town, Parken said a blue bin collection program would not be worth exploring and did not recommend it to the Committee of the Whole. 

“An item to consider if we do explore a yellow or blue bin program is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulation … which came into force on Nov. 30,” Parken added. “EPR means producers take responsibility at the end of life of the products and packaging they put on the market. EPR programs incentivize producers to design products that are more durable and recyclable, so materials and components can remain in the economy for as long as possible.”

According to Parken, the Town of Strathmore Infrastructure department intends to go to public tender in June to request proposals for the automated curbside collection of solid waste and organics. 

Mayor Pat Fule expressed interest in exploring the possibility of adding the collection of yellow bins to the town’s contract with Waste Management once that is to renew at the end of this year. 

Manager of Infrastructure, Ethan Wilson also addressed concerns from councilors regarding the potential impacts from conducting more trips to collect paper products, should residents be given a convenient outlet to recycle those articles, suggesting that the impacts versus benefits would be explored, should the conversation continue.