October 28, 2008
Editorial
Recycling rules milk families
Plan to increase deposits on dairy containers stinks
The province's latest scheme to raise the rates on refundable bottles, and to start charging deposits on milk containers, is little more than a cash cow.
Contrary to what Alberta Environment would have citizens believe, recovery rates rise on the convenience -- not inconvenience -- of a recycling program.
Asking people to go to bottle depots to recover their money on essentials like milk containers is extremely inconvenient. Furthermore, it undermines the success of municipal curbside recycling programs, which also collect beverage bottles and milk containers. As long as the cost of bottle deposits remains reasonable, the convenience of throwing beverage containers into a blue box often is worth the price.
But by further increasing rates -- including a doubling of fees on aluminum pop cans -- and by adding milk containers to the system, losing the deposit money becomes more difficult to swallow.
It's one thing to pay a price if you're throwing your recyclables into the garbage, but quite another when you're participating in a blue box program. In the latter event, it's the municipalities that are the big winners, gaining a financial windfall by redeeming your deposits. Cities should be obligated to reinvest that cash into recycling programs and dropping the cost of the program charged to citizens.
The other issue is the unredeemed deposits -- the province still hasn't determined how these funds will be used.
As for the current bottle depot system, it's already broken and can't likely handle increased demand from adding milk containers to the mix. The standing committee report on the issue confirms a public dissatisfaction with service at bottle depots.
The experience is "often inconvenient and inefficient and
. . . service standards appear not to be enforced by the (Beverage Container Management) Board," says the report.
"The lack of cleanliness and efficiency at the depot is often viewed as a detriment to achieving higher return rates."
So how will adding milk cartons improve anything or make the depot experience better, so that higher return rates may be achieved? It won't, it will make it worse.
The only thing achieved by the province's changes will be a larger carbon footprint by forcing people to start their engines and drive to the depots. For apartment and condo owners in Calgary, who aren't part of the curbside recycling program, they will have to drive to several depots, make several car trips and likely dedicate several hours to the task.
This is one public policy initiative that milks the little people and deserves to be trashed.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/theeditorialpage/story.html?id=24401063-d394-4efa-81e2-32127fb339d0
