‘A long time coming’: Change in recycling regulations could bring blue bin fees in Calgary down to $2.17 per month​on February 5, 2025 at 6:00 pm

Calgary homeowners could soon be paying significantly less for their monthly blue bin fees, thanks to an impending change in provincial recycling regulations.

The Alberta government announced plans in 2022 to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which transfers the responsibility of collecting, sorting, processing and recycling waste onto producers, rather than municipal governments.

Shifting to EPR would bring Calgary households’ blue bin charge down from $9.34 a month to $2.17 a month, representing savings of $7.17 a month or $86 a year.

Alberta will transition toward EPR for single-use products, packaging and printed paper in April, according to the Recycling Council of Alberta. The organization claims it will make producers of these products physically and financially responsible for their disposal.

“This shift will create a more efficient and effective recycling system across the province, ensuring materials are kept in use to be used again as recycled content, new products and packaging,” reads a statement on the Recycling Council of Alberta’s website.

Alberta is following in the footsteps of Ontario, B.C., Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which have all enacted similar EPR regulations.

While some municipalities in Alberta have already transitioned to introducing EPR in their waste management systems since 2022, Calgary has not yet done so.

To facilitate EPR, Calgary city council will need to approve amendments to its waste bylaw – changes that will be presented for preliminary approval at Thursday’s community development services committee meeting.

Approving the bylaw amendments should be a “no brainer,” according to Ward 14 councillor Peter Demong. He’s been a proponent of EPR since 2019, when he brought forward a notice of motion that asked the city to explore the concept.

“I’ve seen how other provinces are getting this discount, this rebate,” he said. “It’s the best way I knew how to actually try to help the average family and households. This is the equivalent of four or five per cent (of your property tax bill).”

Demong said it “feels great” to see something he’s spent years advocating for approach the finish line. He admits he knew little about Calgary’s waste management system before he was first elected in 2010, but became passionate about it when he chaired the city’s former sustainability and environment committee, when the city was ushering in a green bin program.