Curbside recycling will begin for the first time in 104 Alberta communities on Thursday under the province’s Extended Producer Responsibility policy, while residents across all 287 participating municipalities will be able to recycle additional materials. The policy was introduced in April and is now fully operational in those 104 communities. Producers are taking on about $110 million in annual program costs that had previously been paid by municipalities and taxpayers.

The changes follow regulations passed in 2022 that made producers responsible for financing and managing recycling programs with municipalities across Alberta. “These changes are really the culmination of regulations passed back in 2022 that made producers responsible for financing and managing these programs in conjunction with municipalities across the province,” said Allen Langdon, CEO of Circular Materials.

Circular Materials is a non-profit producer responsibility organization that coordinates and oversees recycling of single-use packaging and plastics in Alberta. Producers can include large retail stores and consumer goods companies supplying packaging to residents or businesses. “All of those companies are producers, and they’re responsible for paying for the amount of packaging they supply to Alberta residents,” Langdon said. “That amount is based on the amount of packaging, but also the type of packaging.”

The type of material affects the cost because some packaging takes more work to process than others. Plastic, for example, costs more to recycle than cardboard. The program expands the accepted materials in all 287 municipalities to include meat trays, Styrofoam and plastic packaging such as coffee bags, chip bags, bubble wrap, snack wrappers, cereal liner bags and plastic gift bags.

In Edmonton, residents should not see a change to how recycling service is delivered, but they will be able to put more items in their recycling. “Some of the significant changes are all takeout containers,” said Shawn Gray, the City of Edmonton’s waste outreach coordinator. Takeout containers include coffee cups and other single-use beverage containers.

Gray said residents should scrape food residue from takeout containers into their food scraps cart before recycling them, and may rinse containers to clean them. Chip, coffee, cereal and frozen fruit bags are also among the newly accepted items. The city asks residents to ensure those bags are clean before placing them in recycling.

Alberta’s transition will rely on existing facilities while one facility is renovated in Calgary and a new one is built in Edmonton. “They’ve been working for us in the last 18 months and they’ll continue to work for us for the next few months while we wait for those new facilities to come on stream,” Langdon said.

Gray welcomed the expanded list while urging residents to consider reducing and reusing materials. “We’re happy residents are going to be able to put more materials into their recycling, but we also want to remember that recycling is the third of the ‘3Rs’ … Reduce, reuse, recycle, and they’re ordered of importance,” he said. Edmonton’s Reuse Centre accepts hundreds of used items, including arts and craft supplies, household items and stationery, which residents can pick up for free.

The city provides an online guide to materials that can be recycled, composted or sent to landfill. Gray said residents need to sort items when disposing of them because garbage is generally not sorted after collection. “Typically things that are thrown in the garbage don’t get sorted, that’s why it’s so important for residents to sort at the time of disposal to make sure the appropriate things are going into the food scrap pails and the appropriate things are going in the recycling,” he said. Electronics, batteries and hazardous waste should always be taken to an Eco Station for safe disposal.

The report included files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg.

Based on reporting by CTV News Edmonton.