Preliminary figures for residential garbage and recycling collection suggest Salmon Arm residents are embracing the blue bag.
City council recently had an opportunity to see the numbers relating to the curbside collection program that went into effect January. For that month, statistics show that 103,940 kilograms of garbage was deposited in the landfill, whereas 34,170 kilograms of material was picked up for recycling. February saw a nominal increase to the amount of waste going to landfill, 104,035 kilograms. There was a greater increase in the amount of recyclables picked up, 37,020 kilograms.
Commenting on the latter increase, Coun. Ivan Idzan noted it was positive to see this kind of diversion of material that would otherwise move the city closer to having to replace its landfill.
“Hopefully that trend continues and we start to see a gradual if not significant decline in the amount of garbage being taken to the landfill, versus the recycling,” said Idzan.
The city’s figures, however, don’t show the entire picture. Columbia Shuswap Regional District waste management co-ordinator Ben Van Nostrand notes recyclables continue to be collected at the green bins as well. What he’s seeing, as a result, is a 29 per cent increase in the amount of material being recycled since Salmon Arm began its curbside program.
“That’s kind of what we thought would happen,” says Van Nostrand. “As people got onboard with curbside, they wouldn’t be using bins at Bill’s Bottle Depot and the landfills to deposit their recycling, so we’re starting to see that and, overall, when we add both the depot service and the curbside, we’ve seen a 29 per cent increase, so it’s very encouraging.”
Van Nostrand has seen first hand a shift in attitudes towards recycling, even at the city landfill.
“It’s interesting, people are asking those types of questions, where do I take my wood waste, where do I take my drywall, because they’re realizing that we’re making changes and providing more options for recycling those things, so they’re making an effort to separate them out and, ultimately, pay less because they’re separating those materials,” he says.
The CSRD’s ultimate goal is to see zero waste going into the landfill. This may one day include a pickup for organic waste.
“We need to establish the curbside program first and a better, larger scale composting program as well before we even entertain pickup of organic, but those are all things that we’re working on,” says Van Nostrand.