Talk of a new curbside garbage and recycling pickup has been taking place for over a year.
The City of Humboldt, which previously decided to introduce the curbside system the beginning of this month, announced on Jan. 17 that they have now decided to introduce the new system this coming June.
City Manager Roy Hardy says that winter would have been a challenging time to deal with the mechanics of a new garbage and recycling program.
Spring is just better timing, says Hardy, for a few reasons.
“We wouldn’t have to deal with having all the solutions to winter, which is the most difficult time for pick up.”
Every resident will have two bins, one for garbage and one for recycling and pick up will alternate between the weeks.
With at least a five month window, the city will be able to respond to some of the challenges that comes with a new program, like doing pick up in some of the residential streets, says Hardy.
“We’re going to have to put a little more time into the mechanics of being able to enable people to put their bins out on the street where the trucks can access them.”
Even though the mandatory program will cost $15 for single family and town houses and the $10 for apartments and condos, which seems like a stiff charge for the time being, that charge is going to cover everything from pick up to the trip to the landfill or recycling depot.
The previous program with the $1.50 yellow tags was heavily subsidized by the City. REACT’s levy that the City has been paying is around $90,000 with an additional cost based on population for pick up.
Now that cost is going to be transferred over to the consumer.
Everyone produces garbage, says Hardy, so everyone is going to pay for the system.
“We have enough garbage produced that looking at it from the standpoint of developing a system, we have to develop a system that includes all.”
Hardy admits that there are people who manage their waste really well but the costs that residents pay does not represent the reality of garbage disposal in Humboldt.
Taking the cost off the tax bill and treating it more like a utility, users will know the actual cost, says Hardy.
The main reasons for introducing the program in Humboldt is the convenience factor for residents as well as taking that step to keep the community clean.
“This is going to ensure that everybody’s garbage is disposed of properly. We won’t see garbage bags lying around the streets or thrown by commercial dumpsters.”
On the recycling side of the program, Hardy says the 70 per cent of Saskatchewan communities that have implemented curbside garbage and recycling have seen an increase in the amount of recycling people are doing in their community.
This has lasting effects since the amount of material recycled is material that stays out of a limited space landfill.
“If you take a look at our current landfill, there wasn’t enough recycling done and therefore it got filled relatively quickly.”
Since becoming a regional landfill, the site outside of Humboldt will not be operational for much longer. With the new site, this program in place will mean less recyclable material going there, says Hardy.
That is part of the larger picture, he says.
“In keeping this a green and sustainable city, we have to put programs in place and recognize there is some different levels of use, the truck is still going to be going by their place.”
