Curbside recycling still an option, says Whitehorse mayor

Whitehorse mayor Dan Curtis says city staff were out of line this week to suggest city residentscan't afforda curbside recycling program.

• Curbside recycling too expensive for residents, say Whitehorse city officials

"To suggest it's too expensive may have been a bit premature, before council has had a chance to reach out to a community that really embraces recycling," Curtis said

"It was flawed, it was incorrect, it was inappropriate, and I wish they hadn't have done it, but we all make mistakes."

City waste managers advisedcouncillorsat Monday's meeting to reject the$1.2 million plan for curbside recycling.

The city had solicited bids earlier this year, to determine what such a program might cost. The lowest bidcame in at $16.75per household, per month,or about $200 a year.That fee would be in addition to the $11 monthly garbage fees the 6,000 households in Whitehorse already pay.

"The final price is higher than anticipated and the cost increase to utility rates may be too significant for residents to bear," a city staff report says.

Curtis believes officials "may have anticipated what council wanted" in recommending the plan be dropped, but he says it caught him by surprise.

"That really is the role of elected officials to determine, once they've had an opportunity to talk to the citizens."

'There is no magic bullet'

Curtis says the city is under pressure to come up with some kind of plan for dealing with recyclables, and dropping the blue box idea does not make the problem go away.

He says it will just putmore pressure on the city's privaterecycling processors, whoare already struggling to deal withever-growing mountains of paper, cardboard, glass and plastic things they don't make money off of.

"We are going to see our processors strained and not being able to carry on," he said.

"There is no magic bullet here.You can't just drop [your recyclables]off to a processor and think it doesn't cost you anything. You've actually been getting a free ride for a very long time."

Curtis says without agood waste diversion plan, the city's landfill will quickly reach capacity. Building a new landfill would cost an estimated $26 million, he says, and "we don't have $26 million in the bank to do that."

City councilwill vote next week on whether to accept the staff recommendationand reject the blue box contract.