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Edmonton has been stalled at 50 to 55 per cent diversion for at least 10 years. That means only half of Edmonton’s residential trash is recycled or composted. The rest gets trucked to a landfill near Ryley, Alta. Officials hope to hit 70 per cent of trash diverted from the landfill by 2020, when the new Enerkem waste-to-biofuel facility is operating at full capacity.

“We thought it would be 90 per cent in 2015. Now we’re talking about 2022?” said Coun. Michael Walters, after Waste Services presented its three-year business plan to council’s utility services committee Friday.

Curb-side options

A curbside compost system could mean green carts, which residents fill with food scraps and yard waste, to be picked up by trucks. That’s the system St. Albert and Strathcona County already employ, and Calgary starts this month.

Other options could involve smaller compost centres in neighbourhoods, where residents drop off their waste, perhaps run by private companies. “There are many different models we’re just starting to think about,” said Jones.

Edmonton residents produce 250,000 tonnes of food scraps and yard waste a year, 58 per cent of the total. Some of it goes to Edmonton’s composter, said Jones, but the composter can’t handle it all and is aging — it will only run a few more years.

Cutting costs

Labrecque also said costs have been cut in Waste Services through an initial program review. Because of that, garbage fees will only increase 1.8 per cent in 2018, down from the 4.1 per cent projected earlier.

Coun. Moe Banga said they may need to re-evaluate that 90 per cent goal. “We call ourselves the recycling capital of the north … (but) how much are the federal and provincial governments helping with that?” he said. “Everything could be recycled if we had an unlimited amount of money.”

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