City to charge more for curbside garbage pickup

Despite the rising cost of curbside garbage pickup, onecouncillorsays waste is still not receivingthe environmentally friendly treatmenthomeowners were promised.

Coun. MichaelWalterssaid part of the reason people in Edmonton are willing to pay more forgarbage pickup is their pride in the environmentally sustainable way their waste is handled.

"We have to justify those rate increases," Walters said. "When our rates increase, those environmental outcomes need to be clear."

The utility committee reviewedthe waste management budgetThursday, recommendinga $7-per-month increase fortrashcollection over three years.

Part of the increase will help the cityto divert 90 per cent of residential garbage away from landfills to more environmentally friendly areas.

According to the city's initial plan, that should be taking placealready.But so far the city is only diverting 52 per cent of garbage away from landfills, according to the city's manager of waste management Leo Girard.

The delay comes from the city's efforts to partner with a facility to turn garbage intobiofuel.

Girardsaid the facility is the first in the world of its magnitude that would turnresidential wasteinto an alternate source of fuel.

The idea is to take 100,000tonnesof garbage a year out of landfills and turn itinto methanol and ethanol.Enerkemwill then sell thebiofueland share the profit with the city.

"The challenges, frankly, have been the commissioning of a very, very highly technical process,"Girardsaid.

According to the draft waste management budget, it will cost more than $13 million over the next three years to prepare for thebiofuelfacility.

Girardadded the cost of garbage pickupshould level outby 2019.