City chucks recycling fee in the trash
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on March 13, 2025.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
It’s no joke – starting April 1 city residents will no longer pay for curbside recycling on their utility bills. That’s the date the City of Lethbridge officially opts in to the new Extended Producer Responsibility regulation established by the Alberta government.
The City’s blue bin program is presently a utility charge on residential bills and is about $9 per month or a net of $7 with a two-dollar reduction on the garbage utility charge.
Residents will see reduced fees with the EPR program and those fees will be removed from their utility bills starting April 1.
On Tuesday, city council voted unanimously to approve a recommendation by Waste and Environment general manager Mandi Parker to direct City Manager Lloyd Brierley to pay off debt associated with the Material Recovery Facility from the Waste and Environment department’s surplus.
That debt amounts to $7,588,244. The City of Lethbridge has been contracted by Circular Materials – the only Producer Responsibility Organization for PPP (printed and packaged products) in the province – which will be delivering recycling programs for registered communities in Alberta.
According to a presentation made by Parker to council, “to meet the cost scenarios moving forward, the debt on the material recovery facility needs to be removed from the equation.”
The total amount of the loan balances to be paid by March 31 is $7,588,244. Paying it will result in interest savings of $1,456,856 .
PPP includes such materials as newspapers and magazines, printed paper and cardboard, plastics and metal and glass.
Once the program goes into effect, materials allowed in the blue bins that are collected every second week will remain the status quo.
11-10
Sounds like HaroldP, buckwheat, Dennis and other negative Nellies should apologize to Lethbridge for their hair-on-fire prognostications about the surcharge for recycling. Now we have a good system for diverting useful materials from the dump for free.
And all thanks to UCP 🙂
i for one blame this outrage – this forced savings we have to endure – on the prov’l ndp and trudeau, each of whom i also blame a hangnail and those bright sunsets when heading to the westside. long live the ucp and graft and backdoor deals that keep the corrupted flocking to the ucp.