Edmontonians will be asked to be more mindful before they throw something away.
The city has a new 25-year strategy to deal with the beleaguered waste management system, says a report released Tuesday.
It could include banning single-use plastic products, like bags and straws, as early as January 2021.
City administration should choose how and when to restrict certain single-use plastics or disposable materials by that date, the report says.
As well, the city will look at implementing an organics waste program for residential, industrial, commercial and institutional sectors by fall 2022.
By 2025, the city plans to have new organics processing facilities, where food scraps, other organic material and recyclables are removed from the rest of the waste that ends up in the landfill.
The city’s composting facility was shut down completely earlier this spring after engineers discovered structural problems with the roof.
The report proposes the city’s new anaerobic digestion facility be used to compost a restricted amount of organics waste.
That will include organics from 8,000 households participating in a green bin pilot project that started this spring.
Commercial customers that are able to separate their organics and single-unit residents will be given priority to use the anaerobic digestion facility, which will break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen.
The 25-year plan sets the city on “a path of transformational change,” the report says.
It reaffirms key commitments, such as 90 per cent diversion of waste from the landfill. That goal was set 20 years ago when the waste management centre was built.
The proposed changes come a year-and-a-half after an audit showed Edmonton’s formerly world-class garbage system wasn’t up to current standards.
The audit, released in February 2018, showed that Edmonton had diverted only half of its residential waste away from the landfill between 2012 and 2016, falling short of the target to reduce it by 65 per cent.
The city lowered the lofty 90 per cent goal to 65 per cent by 2018.
For years, Edmontonians threw almost everything into one garbage bag, which was sorted and managed at the waste management centre.
The city also intends to have a private company take over the commercial construction and demolition recycling from businesses.
Council’s utility committee will discuss the reports at its Aug. 29 meeting.