Condo association wants more time for food scraps collection rollout in Edmonton

November 12, 2024 Canuck

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

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.

While there’s no charge to request extra collection for food scraps and recycling, buildings have to pay for extra garbage collection.

Sharma said some buildings are having to source their own private waste removal while still paying for city services – something he said drives up condo fees.

“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.

“In this era of affordability, that may be something that we need to look at.”

Rashidi said he knows it’s not a one-size-fits-all for apartments and condos, and that the city is working with property managers and condo boards during the transition.

“(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.”

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.

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