City to charge more for curbside garbage pickup

Despite the rising cost of curbside garbage pickup, one councillor says waste is still not receiving the environmentally friendly treatment homeowners were promised.

Coun. Michael Walters said part of the reason people in Edmonton are willing to pay more for garbage pickup is their pride in the environmentally sustainable way their waste is handled.

"We have to justify those rate increases," Walters said. "When our rates increase, those environmental outcomes need to be clear."

The utility committee reviewed the waste management budget Thursday, recommending a $7-per-month increase for trash collection over three years.

Part of the increase will help the city to divert 90 per cent of residential garbage away from landfills to more environmentally friendly areas.

According to the city's initial plan, that should be taking place already. But so far the city is only diverting 52 per cent of garbage away from landfills, according to the city's manager of waste management Leo Girard.

The delay comes from the city's efforts to partner with a facility to turn garbage into biofuel.

Girard said the facility is the first in the world of its magnitude that would turn residential waste into an alternate source of fuel.

The idea is to take 100,000 tonnes of garbage a year out of landfills and turn it into methanol and ethanol. Enerkem will then sell the biofuel and share the profit with the city.

"The challenges, frankly, have been the commissioning of a very, very highly technical process," Girard said.

According to the draft waste management budget, it will cost more than $13 million over the next three years to prepare for the biofuel facility.

Girard added the cost of garbage pickup should level out by 2019.