NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT City worker Jason Thomson delivers blue carts on the 400 block of Ninth St. S.E., on May 10, 2018. Contracted service for curbside recycling begins this month with pickups for individual residences set to begin as soon as the carts arrive.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant
Hatters will pay the lowest price in Western Canada for curbside recycling pickup service — just $2.89 more each month — when the bills reflect the new service, starting July 1, according to figures released Friday.
Bins are now being distributed to 23,000 households that already receive grey bin general pickup, and on Monday, fees for the blue cart pickup will be introduced at city council.
Documents released Friday show the actual residential recycling fee will stand at $6.31 for an average month, but combined with reductions of related fees, the overall difference is less than $3.
“The bottom line is the net increase is $2.89 per month,” Brian Murphy, the general manager of the environmental utilities department, told a media briefing on Friday morning.
“All the costs are included.”
The overall effect comprises lower cost the current waste diversion fee, used partly to cover costs of bulk drop off depots. It will decrease by $1.33 per month as less volume is expected at all four depots which will remain open, and are now operated by curbside contractor, CanPak Environmental.
As well, lower volumes of general trash, combined with attributing some administrative costs to the curbside charge, means the standard charge will drop by $2.09 per month.
After the charge is applied as of July 1, a total cost for an average month should be $24.66 . That’s up from $21.77 currently.
Council approved the addition of the service in early 2017 giving administrators a mandate to negotiate a price lower than $5 per month per house.
Murphy says about one-third of the carts have now been delivered to single-family homes, and duplexes multi-family units of four units or fewer.
Since the staggered rollout could take until the end of June, the charge wouldn’t be applied to any bill until after July 1.
Such fees are calculated on a per day basis, meaning some bills will vary from the average.
