St. John's to begin curbside recycling

The city of St. John's plans to begin a curbside recycling program in 2009, ahead of Newfoundland and Labrador's 2015 target of diverting 50 per cent of household waste.

The announcement comes one month after nonprofit recycling depots in the city stopped accepting white office paper and cardboard because they could no longer afford to ship it out of Newfoundland for processing.

In the second stage of the program, which will begin in 2010, people will be expected to separate their organic waste from their garbage.

Recyclable materials, organic waste and leftover trash will be collected curbside by the city and taken to the landfill site at Robin Hood Bay, where a recycling depot will be built.

City hall said it has already lined up markets for the recycled material it collects.

The program has a start-up cost of $1.2 million, and will cost between $1 million and $2 million a year to operate thereafter.

As part of the curbside collection program, the city will also institute a fixed garbage pickup day for the city's neighbourhoods. Currently, households in St. John's work with a roving garbage day that changes depending on civic holidays.