Edmonton’s City Council unanimously passed a bylaw in February 2023 that will have a large impact on how our city manages their waste. This post is going to focus on two main parts of that bylaw: communal collections and bin liners.
Many apartment dwellers have been asking for this since the first green cart hit the curb many years ago saying, “when will it be our turn?” Starting in fall 2023 and continuing until 2027 their turn is here. Impacting approximately 167,000 households, multi-family dwellings will now be included in the organics collection program that single family homes have been using since 2021. “Increasing the separate collection of food scraps and recyclables will help keep more waste out of the landfill and reduce emissions,” the city said in a news release. There was a 30% reduction of waste in the garbage stream after the City completed its switch to the current system for single-family residential. It is unclear what their estimates are for the drop once the multi-family program is in action, but we could see another significant drop in the non-organic waste stream. While the exact logistics of this collection strategy remain to be seen, the City promises to work with building owners to ensure the collection can be accommodated. Apartment and condo dwellers can look forward to their own food scraps collection in the months and years to come.
In terms of bin liners, the city previously required compostable liners labeled BPI or BNQ-certified. This bylaw now permits any type of bin liner to be used in the green cart, of any material. According to the City, the compostable bag liners folks may have previously been using were being thrown into the garbage after food scraps were emptied. Our facility in Edmonton cannot completely compost the certified compostable bags, so if the bags weren’t removed they would contaminate the finished compost material with microplastics and potentially toxic chemicals. Compostable plastics are largely a myth. Compostable plastics are also known as bio-plastics or biodegradable plastic. Each of these are composed of different base materials, or have different properties, and they are scientifically not interchangeable (source). The confusion between the three as far as the general public is concerned, and the “greenwashing” that comes into play in their existence creates problems for composting initiatives like ours in Edmonton. The false promises of compostable plastics also hide a heavy carbon footprint and toxic chemicals (source), both of which negate the benefit of an organics program. When makers of BPI compostable bags advertise that they can break down in municipal composting facilities, they don’t necessarily mean your municipality’s facility. Most of these types of plastics can only break down in a high heat industrial composting facility, far hotter than those which most cities or towns operate.
Under the previous bylaw, and continuing under the new one, liners made from paper are composted alongside the contents of the green bin. Moving forward, liners made of any other material of bag will be removed from the organics waste stream and put in with the general landfill waste. The best solution is to skip liners completely, but if you feel you must use one, try and reuse a bag you already have – in paper if possible – before buying new, single-use plastic bags. The City of Edmonton has already demonstrated their focus on reducing single-use plastics in food service with Bylaw 20117, set to take effect this July (source). It would be a significant step for them to amend the Single-Use Item Reduction Bylaw to require residents to forgo plastic liners, but we know that Edmontonians are still adjusting to the green carts program. Perhaps we can look forward to that addition in the future. For now, we can continue educating friends and family on the merits of going bagless, or help them find creative ways to use (limited) paper or cardboard to line their bins!
Many articles that present this new bylaw mention the City of Edmonton’s climate goals, but what are those goals specifically and how do these new measures – bin liners, communal composting, and single use item reduction – fit into those goals? For one, the City aims to be carbon neutral by 2050, and yet is already set to blow past that timeline (source). A variety of environmental programs are guided by EcoVision “the city’s vision for environmental sustainability” (source) and The Way We Green, which is Edmonton’s environmental strategic plan. Specifically, the new bylaw focuses on the concern that the “residential sector is responsible for about 40% of all solid waste generated in Edmonton” (source), and addresses how to reduce waste and also divert it from going to landfill.
The city declared a climate emergency 3 years ago (source), and has set ambitious goals and targets to reflect this status. How do you see these changes to our waste collection impacting our mitigation or adaptation to the climate emergency? How are these actions going to help Edmonton and Edmontonians get through this emergency? We may not have the answers to these questions today, but they provide some “food for thought”, and can guide our response to the new bylaw and its impact on our day-to-day lives.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Food scraps collection coming to Edmonton apartments and condos (Global News)
Edmonton apartments and condos to have separate food scraps collection (CTV News)
Food waste: what, why and how to stop it (Waste Free Edmonton)
City of Edmonton:
Edmonton’s Strategic Vision – 2019 to 2028
Community Energy Transition Strategy
The Way We Green Speaker Series
Biodegradable Plastic Problems (BioPak)The False Promise Of Bioplastics and Compostable Plastics (Beyond Plastics)
