Calgarians cut landfill waste by half but much of what is thrown out still shouldn't go to the dump

Calgarians have essentially halved how much they send to the landfill compared with about a decade ago, statistics show which suggests programs aimed at reducing waste are paying off.

Last year, on average, each residentsent 368 kilograms to one of the city's three landfills, according to new numbers from the city. That's 48 per cent less than what Calgarians did nine years ago, in 2008, when 712 kilograms was landfilled per person.

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"Landfilled waste continues to decline on a per capita basis. The reduction is attributed to a variety of factors including current economic conditions and increased waste diversion," the city told CBC News in a statement.

The green cart composting program went into effect in 2017.

"With the implementation of the green cart program and continued promotion of diversion and proper disposal of materials, significant progress is anticipated toward the waste diversion target of 70 per cent across all waste sectors by 2025."

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Other factors affect what lands in the landfill, too.

In 2009, the city rolled out curbside recycling with its blue cart program.

There were also upticks in volume due to the massive 2013 flood, and in 2013 and 2014 as rebuilding efforts progressed.

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In 2014, the city completed arandom sample study of single-family wastethat found there's still a lot of work to be done.

About 80 per cent of what went into the landfill-destined black carts could have been diverted: food (36 per cent) and leaf and yard trimmings (29 per cent) along with recyclables (15 per cent).

Only 20 per cent of what was put in the black bins was deemed appropriate, meaning items that couldn't be recovered or recycled.

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A year later, in 2015, city council approved waste diversion targets over a 10-year period looking for aggressive results by 2025.

The city is working towarddiverting 70 per cent of single family waste, 65 per cent from multi-family units, 75 per cent from commercial, industrial and institutional customers and 40 per cent from the construction sector.

"Once all the recycling and diversion programs are in place and all efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle have been explored, we plan to revisit the possibility of using waste-to-energy technology to deal with any left-over materials," the city has said.

And even though the amount of garbage sent to landfill per individual has dropped dramatically since 2008, the total amount being dumped has actually grown. The city's population has grown by several hundred thousand in that time.

In total, Calgarians accumulated 267,900 tonnes of waste in 2017, including 48,300 tonnes in recyclables, 37,700 tonnes of compostables and 181,900 tonnes to the landfill.

By comparison, in 2008 prior to blue and green cart programs,209,000tonnesof total waste went to the landfill.

The city estimates the current space available at the three landfills Shepard, East Calgary andSpyhillwill last about 35 years.

With files from Brooks Decillia