Calgarians who put out more garbage every two weeks than their black bin can hold could be subjected to additional costs if recommendations to council are approved.
“A tag-a-bag program is a program where any garbage that doesn’t fit into the black cart has to have a tag or a sticker attached to it that customers will purchase at a local store, we’re recommending $3 for the price of it, to have it collected,” explained Kate Trajan, leader of strategic planning and policy with the City of Calgary’s waste and recycling services.
"Only about four per cent of households are putting out excess garbage but it’s being paid for by all households. A ‘tag-a-bag’ program will move the costs of excess garbage to the households that are actually putting it out.”
According to Trajan, the introduction of the program is expected to improve fairness, the efficiency of collection, and the safety of garbage truck drivers, while likely diverting recyclable and compostable materials to the proper bins.
“Putting garbage in a bin keeps alleyways clean. It also keeps our service efficient because it takes more time for our truck to stop, a driver to get out, manually load a bag of garbage,” said Trajan. “Putting a price on how much garbage you put out as a household encourages people to put out less by properly recycling and composting the materials that can go in the blue and green carts. So less waste ends up ultimately going to the landfill.”
The City of Calgary is believed to be the only medium or large-sized city in North America that currently offers unlimited garbage collection without charging homeowners who exceed the standard. Other cities offer multiple sizes of garbage bins at different price points but Trajan says that model is not feasible for Calgary at this time. “Calgary, because we already have a standard sized cart for all households, would incur a very large additional cost at this point in the program to introduce different sizes,” explained Trajan. “It could be a better option for us when our current stock of black carts reach the end of their life which we anticipate to be roughly 10 years from now.”
Waste and Recycling Services are also encouraging city council to consider a garbage collection pilot project involving RFID (radio frequency identification) as the black bins currently in use are equipped with the technology. “We’re very curious about it because, in our current system, we already have RFID tags in our carts and it wouldn’t require buying any new carts,” said Trajan. “It could be a particularly good system for Calgary.”
“In systems where they use RFID technology to track how often you put your bin out for collection, the way it’s usually done is there will be a standard base rate on your bill, regardless of how many times you put your bin out for collection there will be a base rate, and then you’ll pay an extra amount each time your cart is tipped. This means if you only need to put your cart out for collection every month or every six weeks, you’ll pay less than people who are putting their cart out every two weeks.”
RFID technology for garbage collection is a relatively new and only a handful of communities have adopted its use.
With files from CTV’s Bill Macfarlane
