Moncton eyes expanding garbage sorting program

The City of Moncton is hoping to get businesses, institutions and apartment buildings to start sorting their garbage.

As it stands, only households are required to use the wet-dry program.

But city council has asked the Southeast Regional Service Commission​ (SE Recyle) to look at what's needed to get others to comply.

Gerard Belliveau, executive director of the commission, says he welcomes the push by council and plans to suggest some pilot projects to recycle more of what's currently going to the dump.

"Sometimes it's a change of machinery, just better speed — there's a whole bunch of stuff that’s there. We'll have to look at what's happening elsewhere to see what could be done," he said.

Belliveau says politicians tend to back down when they see the costs associated with increased recycling.

Sackville Mayor Bob Berry says more recycling could cost his town between $75,000 and $90,000 a year in pickup costs.

But with Moncton also looking at an expanded program, it could make it easier to keep costs down, he said.

Interest in Sackville

Sackville council had asked the commission two months ago about how it could get apartments to join in the wet-dry program.

Berry says his council is facing a lot of public pressure to get more than just homeowners to recycle.

“There was a lot of people questioning us [as to] why they don't pick their garbage up," he said.

"We should do something. We should try to make it across the board and make sure everybody fits in the system somehow."

It's a balancing act between public pressure to increase recycling and trying to keep taxes low, he said.

Moncton homeowners are required to separate their household waste into green bags or blue bags.

Green bags are for wet waste, including all food items, soiled food wrappers, hygiene products, yard waste, tissues, paper towels and any other soiled item that could contaminate recyclables. The blue bags are for dry material, including items that can be easily rinsed or wiped clean, recyclables and non-recyclables, and all types of paper, cardboard, bottles and cans.

The sorting results in about 60,000 tonnes of waste being diverted from the landfill annually, officials have said.