The Green Cart program will be rolled out city-wide in 2017 and will now be free for the first year to give people a chance to get used to the program.
Council approved a fee of $6.50 per household per month earlier this year but have decided to use surplus money to defer the cost for the first year.
“We’ve actually had a very successful few years financially and so the city has had some surpluses. You can’t use the surplus money for long-term tax relief, you can’t use it for investing in programs that go on year after year because you can only fund them one time, you can’t use it for continuing funding. But this was a nice way of using it for one-time funding that none-the-less will result in money in more people’s pockets,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
The pilot program has proven successful and the city says communities that are already using the bins have reduced their garbage by about 40 percent.
“We have a ton of evidence on the green bin and we know that the people in the pilot communities love this project. It is one of the highest rated city services. But they also had a lot of time to get used to it and so the thought that members of council had was, if we don’t charge in the first year, let’s get people using the service, let’s get really large numbers because our goal is to avoid having to invest in new landfills so it’s a double whammy, you get some money back in your pocket and you get the chance to get used to the service so it’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned,” said Nenshi.
The city plans to divert 70 percent of waste from landfills by 2025 and says it will start delivering the carts, quadrant by quadrant, next spring.
The carts will be used for compostable material like food and yard waste and will be picked up every week on the same day as the blue bins.
The city says it will discuss the issue on Monday and determine exactly where the money will come from to cover the cost.
For more on the Green Cart Program, click HERE.
