Report proposes tossing the flat rate in favour of a pay-as-you-throw trash collection system

Pay-as-you-throw report Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission says Calgary can do better at covering the costs of trash collection. Brad MacLeod explains.

A new report is suggesting Calgary move to a “pay-as-you throw system” rather than everyone paying a flat fee for garbage removal.

The report is from the Canada Ecofisal Commission.

Every 30 days, Calgarians pay about $4.90 for garbage pickups no matter how full their black bin is.

“The bins here in the City of Calgary are quite large; they’re 240 litres and you can put a lot of waste into those bins and shouldn’t we be thinking about incentivizing people and those that produce less – pay less,” says Lindsay Tedds from Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission.

There are a few people who are willing to save money based on their practices but some people feel larger households will be penalized.

“The current one size fits all model penalizes everybody so that if you’re a small household you pay the exactly the same to throw out your little pile of garbage every two weeks versus a larger household,” says Tedds.

Trevor Thurber says this idea makes a lot of sense for his small family.

“It makes a lot of sense because not every week do you have a full container so why should you pay for this huge container where maybe someone living beside you has more people at home who would fill up that container or need a larger one so it makes perfect sense,” says Thurber.

The commission used Calgary as a case study because the city has been actively upgrading its waste management system over the years.

The City of Calgary is about to draft recommendations on what a “pay-as-you-throw” system would look like and cost.

It says it’s not a firm plan but expects early next year there will be a report submitted to council.