City of Regina works toward implementing curbside organic waste pickup

The City of Regina is making plans to start residential organic waste pickup services, possibly as early as August for some residents.

City council's executive committee will discuss updating its waste management bylaw during its meeting Wednesday. The amendment would bring in curbside food and yard waste pickup, as well as increase the waste management utility fee for residents, based on the size of their garbage cart.

"This is very important for all of us," said Kelvin Ng, a University of Regina engineering professor with expertise in solid waste management.

"The program should be able to help reduce the amount of waste in our landfills, helping us to improve the environmental sustainability of the [city's solid waste] program."

The city has been working toward introducing organic waste pickup services for years. Diverting such waste from landfills would align with the city's energy and sustainability framework, which was publicly released in March 2022.

The framework lists actions the city can take to reduce its carbon footprint and become a renewable, net-zero community by 2050 — including increasing recycling to divert 65 per cent of all waste from the landfill by 2025 and composting 95 per cent of organic waste by 2025.

The city expects compost pickup to cut the amount of waste sent to the landfill by about 24,000 tonnes per year, eliminating more than 10,800 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year during the first decade, the framework says.

In addition to fewer emissions, organic waste can be composted and used later, said Joanne Fedyk, executive director of the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council. Compost can be used to improve soil, for example, by increasing the amount of water it can hold.

"There's a lot of potential there," Fedyk said.

City administration will present two reports to the executive committee Wednesday, recommending changes to the waste management bylaw that would bring in the food and yard waste program, as well as add it to citizens' waste management utility fee.

The bylaw changes would come into effect for "designated" residential properties starting July 1, according to the administration's report. A designated property is any property that receives garbage service from the City of Regina, as opposed to a company, said Desirae Bernreuther, a media relations consultant with the city.

July 1 was chosen for the bylaw changes — if passed by the executive committee, then city council — to take effect as soon as possible for residents who participated in a recent food- and yard-waste pilot program, Bernreuther said.

Green carts would be delivered to the rest of the residents in August, then city-wide service would start Sept. 4, Bernreuther said, adding that the city already has a contract with EverGen Infrastructure Corp. to process organic waste.

People living in "non-designated" residential properties would start following the program as of July 1, 2024, the administrative report says.

Concerns over utility fee

Regina residents will not be billed for organic waste collection this year, Bernreuther said, but the service will fall under the umbrella waste utility fee that comes into effect next year.

The city expects organic waste pickup to cost $6.3 million per year, but that will correspond with an annual $1.5-million cut in the cost of garbage collection, the administrative report says.

Currently, residents pay for garbage collection through property taxes and recycling through utility bills. But starting Jan. 1, 2024, residents will pay for all waste pickup — garbage, recycling and organics — through the curbside waste services fee.

The fee will remove about $8.9 million from taxes, the administrative report says.

Citizens would be charged based on bin size: People with a 240-litre bin will pay $193.45 per year, or $16.12 per month; and those with a 360-litre container will pay $284.70 per year, or $23.73 per month.

A resident using a 240-litre bin is expected to pay about $31.46 more per year, or $2.62 more monthly, for waste collection, Bernreuther said.

Eligible low-income seniors and people with disabilities would receive a waste utility rebate of $54.75 per year, or $4.56 monthly. Bernreuther said the rebate is calculated as a percentage of the proposed fees, so the rebate amount would adjust accordingly with fee prices.

Experts and advocates consider the utility fee controversial because, while the service must be paid for, it could strain people's finances — particularly for low-income residents.

"There's a need to make sure that we cut down on the amount of waste. We just don't think that this is the solution," said Peter Gilmer of the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry.

"[User fees are] not really based on ability to pay, and that really should be the guiding principle for any kind of public service.… We deem it to be a regressive form of taxation."

The utility fee shifts the burden to pay from property owners to renters, Gilmer said, and it will likely disproportionately affect people receiving social assistance.

Gilmer said he wants the city to expand the eligibility for rebates to all people who meet the low-income threshold.

Ng, from the U of R, agreed that people may struggle to pay for the service, but it also incentivizes efficiency.

Residents with larger bins have to pay more. The city's website notes this is meant to encourage people to waste less.

Reducing the amount of waste produced, coupled with diverting organic waste from the landfill, will make the city's solid waste management system more environmentally friendly and eventually reduce utility costs, Ng said.

Canadians — and people in Regina — tend to produce more solid waste, Ng said, so the program's success will hinge on education so people can change their habits.

City administration wants the executive committee to pass its recommendations, then suggest city council vote in favour of them at its next meeting on June 21.

Ng and Fedyk say approving the program would bring Regina more in line with other Canadian cities.