Waste Services Utility: City Plans Community Discussions to Develop Options

With City Council’s approval this week, the City will move forward with developing options to expand the Waste Services Utility. Moving black-bin collection to a user-pay system would reduce property taxes by $8.9 million -- about 4%.  Put another way, this would transfer the cost of some or all waste management services to a monthly utility bill. The City will meet with residents in the fall and report back to Council in early 2018.

“We know this is an important initiative and we want to get it right,” says Brenda Wallace, Director of Environmental and Corporate Initiatives. “Residents have many concerns like affordability and increased illegal dumping. So, to hear what people think, we’re going to launch a series of community discussions this fall and gather input on the design of an expanded Waste Services Utility.”  

One option to be explored is a variable-rate utility/user-pay system which offers a number of benefits:

• Creates incentives to reduce the amount of waste residents put in their black garbage cart.
• Allows the City to build a sustainable funding model.
• Extends the life of the landfill.

Wallace stresses the variable fee-for service garbage collection model includes charges based on cart size or collection frequency, not weight.

“Research conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2013 discovered waste utility models can improve waste diversion rates by up to 40 per cent,” Wallace says. “A successful waste diversion program is critical to deferring the closure of the landfill.”

Wallace adds the costs to close the existing landfill and establish a new landfill are estimated at $26 million and $100 million respectively.

The community has set a target of diverting 70% of our waste from the landfill. This means that 70% of waste in Saskatoon will be reused, recycled or composted. In 2016, 22% of waste was being diverted through programs such as the single and multi-unit residential recycling programs. This is the second lowest diversion rate when benchmarked against other Canadian cities.

More information on the City’s Waste Diversion Plan can be found on saskatoon.ca/wastediversion.  

This expansion of the waste services utility supports the Strategic Goal of Environmental Leadership including the four-year priority to promote and facilitate city-wide composting and recycling and the long-term strategy to eliminate the need for a new landfill; It also supports the Strategic Goal of Asset and Financial Sustainability by reducing reliance on residential property taxes and setting long term sustainable rates.