Renters left with fewer recycling options in Saint John as homeowners get curbside pickup

Some Saint John renters will be out of accessible, free recycling options by the end of the month as the city rolls out its curbside program for homeowners.

Over the past two years, Saint John has developed and tested a new waste-management program that will bring curbside recycling to homeowners and people living in buildings of four units or less. The city said the program will make recycling more accessible and reduce landfill waste.

However, not everyone directly will benefit from the change. Rolling out curbside recycling also means the city will be doing away with central recycling depots, called blue bins, that everyone was able to use.

The Fundy Regional Service Commission runs the large bins and will remove them from grocery store parking lots on Oct. 24.

Now, tenants will have to either cart their recycling to the Crane Mountain facility about 18 kilometres from uptown Saint John, hire a private recycling pickup company out of pocket, or wait to see if their landlord will offer recycling.

One Saint John resident already knows what will happen. Courtney Pyrke's landlord is not offering recycling, and Pyrke said they can't afford to spend money on gas or a private pickup service. This leaves Pyrke with only one option:

"It just has to go in the trash ... It just feels so gross, like wrong."

Pyrke said recycling was instilled in them growing up.

"When I moved here and our options were the blue bins, like, I still kept up with that."

Pyrke said having no options makes them feel helpless when it comes to doing their part in fighting climate change.

"We're seeing the climate crisis happening right in front of us, like for example, Hurricane Fiona," Pyrke said. "I'm kind of wondering, is Saint John going to be next? Because, you know, we're also right on the coast."

The curbside recycling pilot program did show an increase in recycling and a decrease in landfill waste, despite not serving most renters.

Manager says recycling pickup is expensive

Deputy Mayor John MacKenzie said he doesn't believe many landlords will say no to offering recycling, because it will save them money. But one property management company president said there will be no savings, just extra cost.

MacKenzie said commercial property owners have to pay a fee to dump waste in landfills. That fee is waived for recycling. So the more tenants separate their trash, the lighter the landfill load, and the lower the landfill bill would be for landlords, he said.

"The contractor would actually save money taking recyclables to the landfill and [landlords] save money on their tipping fees," MacKenzie said.

Jeff Murray, president of Canada Homes for Rent, said his company, which manages about 1,800 units in Saint John alone, gets charged per dumpster, no matter how full that dumpster is.

He said the contractor has also been charging a 30 per cent surcharge on fuel. So even if they're willing to pick up recycling for free, which they're not, the property owners would end up with a bigger bill, Murray said.

"You got rising property taxes, you get rising heating costs. … So it's just not really something that we're doing."

Murray said his company will not be offering recycling for now, but if he hears from tenants, he will pass that information on to the 320 building owners the company works with. 

The final decision will be up to the owners, he said. And whether that expense is worth it will depend on how the owners are managing with inflation, how important recycling is for them, and whether it's an expense that makes sense to the business and bottom line.

"It's a slippery slope for some owners because they don't want to come off as being, you know, inconsiderate or not caring," Murray said. "But also, too is the fact isn't that these these folks are seeing high costs from every, like, literally every angle."

Murray said at the end of the day, once the recycling plan is implemented, any suffering will fall in two areas, and the city and landlords aren't among them.

"The environment and the tenants themselves," he said. "Those are the two things that are going to hurt the most … in the absence of some sort of other plan."

Can the city force landlords to recycle?

Exactly where such a plan would come from, and who's ultimately responsible, is not known. 

MacKenzie said it makes no financial sense to keep the blue bins on top of the added expense of curbside recycling. He said the city serves people in homes and buildings with four or fewer units, and that's who the city focuses on.

"Our target area was the people that we pick up garbage for, you know, every week or every two weeks and to put a a system in place for them," he said. 

"If we were to leave the blue bins in place, then we would be defeating the purpose because a lot of people would just say, well, I'm not going to wait till the end of the week, I'm just going to take it to the blue bin. … It's double the cost."

According to the city's website, staff have explored bylaws that would mandate commercial properties, including landlords, to recycle.

"Unfortunately, the City has no jurisdiction over these commercial entities and under current legislation does not have the authority to enforce these waste diversion requirements," the website says.

The website offers the following alternatives:

• A Saint John company called the Blue Run offers paid residential and commercial recycling collection, and drops it off at the Fundy Region Solid Waste recycling plant.
• Cardboard collection "may be a standard offering from private waste haulers."
• Access Data Management Corp., formerly Saint John Recycling, offers a paper and cardboard recycling service to businesses.  
• Recyclables can be taken directly to the Crane Mountain Landfill to be collected for recycling.

MacKenzie said provincial legislation is coming that would transfer the cost of recycling onto the manufacturer of the recyclables. He said he hopes this will remove the financial burden on recycling from the consumer to the producer.

But until then, there's nothing the city can do.

"It's unfortunate that, you know, in this day and age landlords don't see the benefit for the environment."