Changes coming to Alberta recycling system

By Lethbridge Herald on August 14, 2024.

A truck picks up recycling from a row of carts in a neighbourhood on the city’s southside. The provincial government is planning on expanding its recycling program to include more than 500 additional electronics items. Herald file photo by Ian Martens

Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Chris Neilsen has hopes the provincial government’s plan to expand its recycling program will be successful.

But the owner/operator of DBS Environmental Services in Lethbridge has some reservations about elements of it.

The province announced on Tuesday that beginning in 2025 Alberta will start recycling more than 500 additional electronics items including power tools, microwave ovens and cellphones.

For the past four years,the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (ARMA) has run an electronics recycling pilot project which on April 1, 2025 will become permanent and enable communities to recycle more than 500 different types of electronics items.

Neilsen said people will now pay an eco fee on vacuums, microwaves, cordless tools and other materials. That fee is already charged on some items by retailers.

Also being implemented next April 1 is the Extended Producer Responsibility regulation which will put the cost of collecting, sorting, processing and recycling materials on producers, removing that from municipalities and taxpayers.

Producer-run programs already operate in other provinces including B.C., Saskatchewan and Ontario.

Alberta is also going to develop Canada’s first recycling programs for solar panels wind turbine components and electric vehicle batteries, a program which the province says will make Alberta’s the most comprehensive in Canada.

Neilson said as of April 1 even styrofoam and the cardboard box a product comes in “now will have a home.”

Right now recycling styrofoam is expensive but the costs will switch over to manufacturers “and we’re going to see a whole bunch more materials come into play in April. Styrofoam is one, soft plastics like a bread bag, is another one,” said Neilsen adding there will have to be a redesign of some systems.

The average landfill cost of a black cart is $119 a metric tonne to bury garbage. If styrofoam is recovered, it costs $1,600 a metric tonne to get that material into recycling, he said. That amounts to about seven semi-trailer loads of loose styrofoam, he said.

Mandi Parker, General Manager of the City’s Waste and Recycling Department, said starting next April 1, recycling will be handled by ARMA which “has hired a pro who will actually look after the physical recycling collections, processing and education and outreach at no cost to municipalities or to residents.”

A lot of big producers such as Pepsi-Co, Procter and Gamble, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson are already doing the work in Ontario and B.C.

One thing that will come out of EPR is if manufacturers can collaborate and collaborate the same type of packaging that is easy to recycle, “it will become easier once they streamline it,” said Parker.

Neilsen, whose parents Duff and Carol started DBS Environmental (Duff’s Bulk Service) after divesting of their Esso fuel business of the same name in Raymond three decades ago, does have questions about the new programs for solar panels, batteries and wind turbines.

“The collection of most of the expansion has been going on for four years. On the electronic side, it started out to be just TVs and computer equipment and then four years ago, it was expanded to basically everything with a cord except large appliances such as washers and dryers and freon-based fridges and freezers, Neilsen said.

“The Alberta government wants the industry to adapt to wind turbines, solar panels and car batteries which is interesting because as of now nothing exists basically in the world for any of those.

“There is some limited technology for bits and pieces but solar panels technically have nothing recyclable in it except for a bit of aluminum around the outside,” said Neilsen.

Wind turbine blades are a carbon fibre/fibreglass composite “of which there is no technology to turn it into something else. Once they’re done they’re just a landfill commodity,” said Neilsen.

“They have nothing of value in them when their life is over.”

He said hopefully the province is committing to fund some experiments and technology.

“If we can do it, we can sell it to the world. If we can figure out. So it’s possibly a good thing,” added Neilsen.

“Right now it’s all experimental and research on the renewables technologies.”

He added he thinks the province “is a little wishful on wanting something in place domestically because it’s not a consumer problem,” he said of the car batteries.

“The car manufacturers should come up with a method of dealing with them on their own at their cost, not the taxpayers’ costs.”

He said Lethbridge does a good job of recycling with well-used facilities. He says the cart system “has very much improved the quality of the materials we collect. In our group, we feel if we can recycle today’s waste today, we can do something with it. If it gets stockpiled or old or wet or dirty, then we have challenges. But the way Lethbridge is doing it now, we’re getting it right after the consumer uses it and we can make the most of it,” added Neilsen.

“The carts are a godsend for quality,” said adding the cart system is very cost effective.

With expanded producer responsibility, Neilsen said technically the City of Lethbridge will start being paid by manufacturers to operate the blue cart system.

“Industry has a single entity so you’re not dealing with 10,000 manufacturers. It’s called Circular Materials and that is the industry’s body for distributing money back to municipalities,” said Neilsen.

The not-for-profit Circular Materials website says EPR “enables innovation, operational efficiencies, increased standard levels, and access to materials. It is recognized as one of the most effective mechanisms to improve recycling rates.”

Neilsen said the Household Hazardous Waste Program has also been changed with manufacturers now being responsible for that with funding coming to municipalities for their toxic waste roundups.

Also on April 1, all batteries except 12-volt lead acid ones will be moving to a return-to-retail system with retailers having collection bins at their front doors. And site collection systems at recycling centres will also have collection facilities.

“Battery recycling is about to get a boost in Alberta,” said Neilsen who sits on two standing committees, representing industry and collection sites.

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