The Town of St. Paul must do its part to ensure that recycling happens in the most effective way and to that effect, there will be some changes to St. Paul’s recycling program, Mayor Glenn Andersen reported at a Nov. 22 council meeting.
“We all believe in recycling,” he said, noting that people often express interest in blue box programs, in which recyclables are picked up from each house. However, after looking into this option, council’s belief has been that such a program doesn’t deliver “good bang for a buck,” he said.
However, the current system of having people sort and deliver their various recycling goods to the bins on the north end of town is not working well, he said, adding the bins are always full and the costs for recycling are continually increasing. The transfer station committee is looking at partnering with Allied Paper in Edmonton to have the recycling collected at St. Paul’s transfer station instead, which was always the eventual goal in mind for the transfer station, he said.
There will be bigger bins with wider openings at the transfer station for people to more easily dispose of newspaper, mixed paper and office paper, while cardboard will be collected and baled by transfer station staff. Tins and glass will also be collected on-site, but recycling for plastic will be axed, he said.
Andersen noted people are going to the trouble of sorting and recycling their lower-grade plastic that will likely end up in a landfill anyway. “It costs us to collect it, it costs us to dispose of it and there’s no market for it.”
The Town of St. Paul had contracted St. Paul Abilities Network to take care of the town’s recycling. However, according to information supplied by Andersen at the council meeting, SPAN would be increasing its base fee from $60,000 to $70,000 in 2011, as well as increasing its bin pickup overcharge, leading to a total estimated recycling cost of $93,000 in 2011. Calls to Tim Bear, executive director for SPAN, were not returned by the Journal’s press deadline.
Under the new system and working with Allied Paper, the recycling costs would be $100,805 in 2011, but this would also take into effect the costs of hiring a student for the transfer station from May to September, as well as the one-time purchase of a baler and a forklift. Information supplied by Andersen suggests the baler and forklift, each estimated to cost $15,000, could be purchased under MSI grants. The expected income from cardboard, mixed paper, newsprint and office paper recycling would be $20,765 in 2011.
Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski expressed approval for the new plan, saying it would make it easier for people to dispose all of their goods at one location. “I think a one-stop shop is the way to go.”
“We’re trying to be honest to our community,” said Andersen, adding that if there was no market for certain recyclables, there is no reason for people to collect these materials, only to have them go in the landfill.