Calgary’s ‘Pay-as-you-throw’ garbage pilot gets trashed

Calgary City Council will not proceed with a garbage collection pilot program for residential black carts, which would implement a pay-as-you-throw service model.

The city first proposed the model back in 2018 as a way to save on costs and reduce waste.

Calgarians would get the option to pay for one of three sizes of bin: 120 litres, the current 240 litres, and 360 litres, as well as the option to tag-a-bag, which would allow them to pay for extra garbage left out for pick up.

Pay-as-you-throw has seen use by nearly 7,000 communities in the U.S. as a way to cut waste and save municipalities money.

Lee-Anne Bell, leader of Strategic Planning and Policy with Calgary’s Waste and Recycling Services, says while there is a sense of fairness with the program, it ends up costing the city more.

“We’ve looked at a number of options under the pay-as-you-throw banner, where we’re looking to introduce some more fairness into our black cart program,” Bell said.

She says people can make use out of it by paying for the level and frequency of service they need. However, the logistics behind the pilot project are a bit more complicated.

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An analysis of the program revealed it would cost up to $9.5 million to pilot and introduce. On top of that, it would increase annual sustainment costs by up to $1.7 million.

“Those options are just too expensive. And what ends up happening is that that means everybody ends up paying more,” Bell said.

Calgary’s black carts are already equipped with a microchip, but in order to move forward, electronic readers would need to be installed on all city garbage trucks.

When it comes to data collection, including cart details, and customer addresses, the city estimates its accuracy is at 95 per cent. That means roughly 30 thousand billing errors could occur every month.

“In some cases, the chips on the carts might be damaged and could affect how well the reader picks up that chip. Secondly, in situations where you have people that, maybe a couple of neighbours that put their carts side-by-side, you could get some interference,” Bell said.

For the time being, the city has decided to trash the idea, stating the cost to pilot, implement and sustain it outweighs any potential savings.

-With files from Jonathan Muma