Recycling charges inequitable
By Letter to the Editor on August 13, 2020.
Grandview Village is a condo for 55+ adults. We have 108 suites, 58 of which are occupied by one person; the other 50 have two people – the maximum occupancy of a suite is two.
The City of Lethbridge has informed us that a universal recycling fee of $7 per month per suite will be added to all utility bills with no opt-out option. If you do the math, 108 units at $7 = $756 per month. The cost for our weekly garbage collection for two dumpsters is $373 per month and from what we understand, the recycling dumpsters will be collected every two weeks.
How is this not inequitable?
As each suite will not have its own blue bin, the City is not required to pick up 108 blue bins, but instead empties four slightly larger dumpsters twice per month.
Come on, Mr. Spearman, do you not see the inequity here? It isn’t rocket science – let’s play fair!
Grandview Village Board of Directors
Lethbridge
9-8
Not much of an argument presented. I live alone but have neighbours with 4 kids and 3 cats. My bin is half full while their bin overflows. We pay the same. Prior to blue bin my direct cost was almost zero. I recycled everything possible , and then planned my trip to the recycle centre to include other stops to minimize gas usage Also I could write these letters about equitable as I do not use the bus, only been to Casa once and have not been to the new YMCA which the city taxpayers are paying for. But I choose to live in a city so I accept we must all pay for things we use and things we do not.
1) The city said; “We have found a market $ for a lot of the recycled material”! My question is this: The city started the collection at $7.00 why am I not reimbursed “my start-up money”? Clearly they are making money on our recycled material, why am I still paying 7 bucks!?! How much money are they making on OUR recycled material!?
The city should be working for us not the other way around!
2) The city said; “We are filling up our landfill we need to buy another soon”! My question is: Why are we accepting trash from all over southern Alberta and British Colombia? Cardston, Welling, Magrath, Waterton, Pincher Creek, Elkford, Sparwood, Stirling etc. All of these towns are FILLING up our landfill! Why….. Why are we paying to dump in OUR landfill when we should be making all of these others who are filling up OUR landfill pay for the new one!!!?? The city clearly lied to us, we are NOT filling it up the rest of southern Alberta and southern British Colombia is filling it!!! Why are we paying when we could easily charge these others more for tipping!!!???
The city should be working for us not the other way around!
I use my blue recycle bin for off-season storage of my patio furniture cushions. Nice and clean, dry.
And its chained to the fence so no one will take it to the FRONT street for pickup.
Unfortunately, dogknox the waste management created a MRF loss of $ 935,000 the first year of operation. they have a borrowed debt of $16m, yearly debt payments of $1.5 m , contract processor costs of $1.4m yearly plus $1.8m operating costs. the Mrf created a marketable 4761 tonnes with MRF revenue $1.2m. There is no curbside recycle rate you pay $20.60 for waste (garbage ) collection the revenue is deposited in Waste collection fund not recycle fund Bylaw 6146 Schedule A -1-2. The condo group have a $7.00 recycle collection fee Bylaw 6146 Schedule A -4. The question you should ask Council is why is there not a $7.00 Residential Curbside Recycle Collection fee for over 35000 fees $2.94m and expenditures of $2.523,000. They approved but have no jurisdiction on bylaw terms they have to talk to the “engineer”.
Life isn’t fair, it never is. I think you are getting a deal personally. Your garbage $373 and recycling at $756=$1129 divide by 108 equals $10.45 per unit. Imagine if you paid what homeowners paid that would be $20,60×108 = $2233.44 per month. You are getting a 49.5% discount. I’m not complaining just pointing out facts. I suspect that the rest of Lethbridge is going to get hit with the $7 fee sooner or later, probably after the next municipal election. Last month I used $2.15 worth of gas and my bill was $53.00. It sucks but that’s the way it is.
Good lord give it a rest. We are a society that helps each other out and the broad spectrum of fees and taxes we pay eventually equal out. You are complaining about a couple of nickles to a few dollars here and there. How about we charge you triple for the fact you probably use triple the amount of health care that I use. Now we are talking thousands and thousands of dollars. Basing this comment on the fact you live in a condo for the elderly, and only an elderly person with way too much time on their hands would write such a childish letter. My scheme makes sense to me but narrow minded people will not see the logic.