Cold Lake, AB – Cold Lake City Council will have further discussions regarding changes that can be made to the City’s Organics Collection Program to maximize diversion from the landfill.

“We’ve been receiving questions from the public about our waste collection programs and recycling programs, and we want to ensure that we are meeting the public’s expectation in regards to the programming they receive and the cost that the public must bear to achieve its goals,” Mayor Craig Copeland said.

The City of Cold Lake is aware that its waste stream contains a significant amount of organic material, as this was identified in the City’s 2016 Residential Solid Waste Management Study. This study identified changes to the City’s Organics Collection Program as the primary means of diverting a large amount of material from the landfill. That study found that organics forms the largest part of the average household’s waste in Cold Lake, comprising about 42 per cent of a household’s waste by weight. It also found that 43 per cent of households in Cold Lake do not divert organic material from the waste management stream at all.

Administration noted, however, that encouraging the diversion of organics would come with new household items, such as kitchen catchers used to gather food scraps and other organic material for curbside disposal. The program could also use other means of incentivizing organics collection. This can take the form of reducing the size of garbage bins used for household waste, or reducing the frequency of collection for regular household waste. Either option would encourage the public to sort organic material from their regular household waste to avoid over stuffing garbage receptacles with all of the waste their household generates.

The City could also structure its program to maintain the current level of service for household waste collection while also increasing the frequency of curbside organics collection and providing households with kitchen catchers, however this would come at in increased cost to the taxpayers. Also, as the 2016 Residential Solid Waste Management Study notes, it would also not provide an incentive for households to actively divert organic material form the regular household waste stream.

The City’s Organics Collection Program currently costs $1.50 per month for curbside collection, includes drop off at the transfer station for free, and takes commercial loads of organic material for $10.

Currently the program offers:

• Curbside collection every two weeks in the summer, alternating weeks with curbside recyclable pick up.
• The transfer station accepts the drop off of organic waste year-round with no charge.
• Curbside Christmas tree pick up the first week of January each year.
• Special organic roundup events every spring and fall. These events allow for up to 10 bags of organic waste to be collected within a two-week period, twice each year.

“Council has committed to reviewing the program and discussing any changes that we want to see. And this is a good time of year to do it, since any changes that have a budget impact can be discussed during our upcoming budget process,” Copeland said. “At this point we are not committed to any specific changes – we want to see what the residents want and the best way to accommodate that.”

Council will discuss the Organics Collection Program and possible changes at a future Corporate Priorities Committee Meeting.