Condo association calls green bin rollout 'rocky', while city says new habits take time

The Canadian Condominium Institute (CCI) North Alberta isn't happy with Edmonton's rollout of its new waste collection program to apartments and condos.

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In 2021, the city launched the new waste collection program for single family homes, with garbage, food scraps and recycling sorted and picked up separately.

The city wants all Edmonton apartments and condos to do the same by 2027, and a four-part roll out began in southeast Edmonton last year.

The changes began with city teams delivering food scrap pails and educational booklets to residents.

"We have a waste education team that actually visits every single door to speak to the residents, address concerns, answer questions, and get their buy-in to sort their waste in these new programs," Vahid Rashidi, program director of communal waste transformation at the city, said.

CCI government advocacy co-chair Anand Sharma said, despite those steps, the program has "gone off the rails."

"(It was unclear) that there was going to be quite a bit of a reduction in the amount of waste removal from sites, which has led to sites that are now very unsightly (with) overfilled bins," Sharma said.

"We need to slow this program back a little bit," he said.

The residential program was rolled out to about 250,000 homes over a six-month period. The city said it is taking four years to introduce the changes to Edmonton's about 3,300 condos and apartments.

"(We do) recognize that change like this requires time, and may take residents some time to get used to the new habits," Rashidi said.

"We're providing a lot of resources for them to be educated on what needs to go in the food scraps container," he continued. "We have a very good app, it's called the WasteWise app, that they can download on their phone to help with that."

The amount of waste for each building was calculated using the actual amounts of waste being generated there each week, plus a 30 per cent "buffer" for garbage while residents could get used to the new system.

There's no charge to request extra collection of food scraps and recycling, but the city said buildings will have to pay for extra garbage pickup. 

"If extra garbage collection were provided, properties and residents would be less motivated to sort their food scraps and recycling, undermining the purpose of the program," the city said.

Sharma says it's frustrating for building owners and condo boards to have to pay the city or private companies to pick up waste while also paying for city services.

"Right now, we are required to use The City of Edmonton Waste Services … but perhaps that's something that we need to change," he said, adding the cost of private services can be up to 60 per cent cheaper.

Rashidi privatizing waste collection would increase emissions, cost other taxpayers more money and make tracking waste more difficult.

"If residents sort their waste into recycling and food scraps, and ensure that furniture and hazardous waste are taken to an Eco Station, the garbage allocation should be sufficient," he said.

"If property managers notice residents in their buildings are not complying with the rules, the city can provide additional in-person education at that property."

CCI said 28 per cent of Edmonton's condos and apartments have already switched over. That's a total of 35,000 units, according to the city.

Northeast Edmonton will be the next for the expansion, followed by southwest Edmonton and northwest Edmonton.

The city is offering a virtual information session on the changes on Nov. 19 from 6 to 6:30 p.m. More information can be found on the city's website.