CALGARY- Businesses and organizations in Calgary are being told to start recycling, or pay the price.
Council has voted on a new program that will make on-site recycling mandatory.
Companies who ignore the rules, and toss recyclables in the garbage will have to pay $170 per tonne for items found headed to the landfill.
“38 percent of all waste that goes to our landills comes from our businesses and organisations.”
Currently there are about 160,000 businesses in Calgary, employing about 780,000 people. And yet the city says the vast majority do not have a blue bin program in place.
“Based on our research in the past, we know about 20 per cent of businesses currently have recycling programs in place, which is why this is so critical,” said Leanne Michie, a waste diversion specialist with the city.
The vice president of operations at IHS Canada, Blaire Penney, said businesses shouldn’t view recycling programs as an added expense.
“Looking at our entire approach and some of the goals we set internally, it forced us to change some of our ways and processes and some of those changes saved us tens of thousands of dollars a year,” he explained.
The city added it is meeting with stakeholders to ease the transition and educate building owners. Council has yet to vote on organic waste, but the city hopes to have a program approved by 2017 to coincide with residential composting.
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