Saskatoon residents could see a change in their curbside pickup payments come 2023, with the city once again presenting two different options for the garbage program.
The administration is looking at two different ways for people to pay for garbage and organic waste pick up.
Both will treat garbage pick up as a utility, but they differ on how people will pay for the service.
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Option one involves fixed monthly rates for both black and organic bins.
Black bins would be at an estimated $8.50 a month while organics would be $6.73.
Option two, which is recommended by the administration, says by 2023 there would be a fixed monthly rate for organics, and by 2024 residents would be able to get different sized black bins based on how much garbage they produce.
Joanne Fedyk, executive director with the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council (SWRC) said, “The curbside collection program for organics has the potential to keep a lot of materials out of the landfill because the organics part of residential garbage is quite substantial.”
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Each option comes with a list of pros and cons from the city, including the obvious cost increase for residents.
Saskatoon blogger and Instagram influencer @sneaksandlipstick, Maygen Kardash, asked her 17,000 followers what they thought about the potential changes.
“Most of my followers were enthused about the idea of reducing waste, of making people pay if they do waste more, but they did point out some problems,” said Kardash.
One of her biggest concerns is for low income families since lots of products used to help reduce waste are quite costly.
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“They might not have the budget to you know get beeswax wraps or do cloth diapering like I did. These are all barriers that I haven’t had to personally face but I know that people do,” Kardash said.
The main goal of the program implementation is to reduce waste in the city of Saskatoon.
The administration will be presenting the two options to committee on Monday.
Whichever option they choose will go to city council for final approval.