One of the core services a municipality is responsible for providing is taking care of a community’s waste – whether it’s the waste you flush, the recycling you put in the blue bins, or plain old bags of household garbage.
For Canmore residents, how garbage is handled has been both a source of pride and frustration, given the added complexity of the fact the community is in a valley that is also home to several species of wildlife that should not be allowed access to human food and garbage, including in the form of composted material.
While the municipality has boasted about its bear bin collection system as a way to coexist with wildlife, it has also been slow to get municipal waste services into the 21st century of source separation for recyclables and organic diversion.
In 2016, a study of Canmore’s garbage found that food waste represented 37 per cent of what was being hauled to a landfill near Camrose, and that fact doesn’t sit well with either Dianna MacGibbon or Doug Saul.
Saul and MacGibbon are part of a group of individuals in Canmore who have joined together to focus on the 2017 municipal election and the issue of bringing organic diversion to the community, and have met with candidates in an effort to bring the important issue to the forefront.
MacGibbon said Canmore Organics Recycling (CORE) began because like-minded people who used to compost, but have moved to the town and can’t because the local bylaws prohibit composting, wanted another option.
“The amount of garbage we are producing is phenomenal and we understand the reasoning for not having a backyard composter here, but there seems to be other ways to deal with it,” she said.
The group has done its legwork as well, researching organic diversion programs in other municipalities like Squamish, Calgary and Banff. For Saul, being sandwiched between those two municipal organic diversion programs, makes him wonder why Canmore has not taken the same route.
“They are learning things as they go along and you only learn when you start taking action; when you commit to something,” Saul said.
Organic diversion has been an objective for Canmore’s municipal solid waste and curbside recycling programs for a long time. But like neighbourhood recycling, which was introduced to Canmore in 2013, there have been issues impeding a commitment to it by council.
The 2012 waste management strategy for the municipality recommends evaluating the use of garburators and a neighbourhood collection system, similar to how Banff has included an organic bin alongside a handful of bear-proof neighbourhood garbage bins.
Currently, the Town is undertaking a study into garburators as an option to promote for residents in order to reduce the amount of organics going to the landfill.
But for MacGibbon and CORE, the next council needs to take the issue seriously and fully study organic diversion as an option that is far better at capturing the range of organic material that can be diverted than garburators do.
“This is not a new issue,” she said. “CORE’s objective is to get it moved up the scale in terms of the town’s priorities to look at it comprehensively and come up with a plan.”
MacGibbon said at best garburators are a partial solution for what could be diverted from the landfill, as more materials can be composted, including some paper products.
“What we are trying to do is encourage the town to do proper evaluation of the two main options – an animal proof bin system and the garburetor option,” she said.
Saul said the organization is hoping that by speaking with candidates and providing them with information they have gathered through research, the next council will set organic diversion as a strategic objective for its four-year term.
“We know the problem with what we do right now; eventually we run out of space, we are throwing away resources and it creates nothing,” he said. “The communities that are taking on organic diversion are learning these pieces and we get to benefit from what they learn.”
Incumbent mayoral candidate John Borrowman said he believes establishing a community-wide organic diversion system is possible over the next four years at the recent environmental candidates forum.
“I am certain within the next four years and the next term of council we will see comprehensive organic diversion in place,” said Borrowman, adding that added service would be accompanied with a cost for installing infrastructure, as well as annual operations and maintenance.
He also pointed to an initiative Bow Valley municipalities are connected to, the Southern Alberta Waste to Energy Alliance (SAEWA). The multi-year, multi-million dollar endeavour is hoping to locate a waste to energy facility in the province as a viable alternative to landfills, which are filling up and have limited space into the future.
Candidate Jeff Hilstad received the question at the forum on organic diversion and noted that neither option – garburators or diversion – have been comprehensively evaluated. As such, he said, it is not possible to consider cost implications and once those evaluations are done, then it can be considered by council as part of the budget process.
Joanna McCallum agreed organics diversion is “definitely on the horizon” for council.
“We are investigating a pilot project for the community and ensuring it is feasible and right-sized for our community,” she said.
Rob Seeley and Esmé Comfort were asked about why a full evaluation of options other than just garburators has not occurred under this council.
Seeley said the Town is moving forward with the garburator study to see if they are a practical solution to the issue.
“We will need a partner to the composting direction,” he said.
For Comfort, the momentum CORE has brought to the issue was providing information and input to candidates and administration.
“That I very much appreciate,” she said. “My favourite community initiatives are where volunteers create momentum and push it forward.”
