City ponders apartment, condo recycling pickup

Any proposal to bring the city's curbside recycling to apartments and condos could be years away.

A council committee approved a motion Wednesday to look at ways to bring the city's curbside recycling program to people who live in apartments and condos.

The city's blue-cart program rolled out in 2009, but it's only aimed at single-family homes.

That means the only other choices for people in condos are recycling bins at local depots, or paying a private company for pick-up.

Ald. Druh Farrell said she supports finding a way to bring recycling programs to all Calgarians.

"If we're trying to encourage people to live in a multi-family-type dwelling, which is what we're trying to do through Plan It Calgary, then let's make it easy for them," said Farrell. "Let's give them the same services that people in single-family have."

She noted, however, that expanding blue cart would be a challenge.

"There's townhouses, there's six-plexes, there's apartments, condos, and so each of those housing types requires a different type of pick-up," Farrell said.

If council approves Wednesday's recommendations at its next meeting, a report on how the city could provide curbside recycling to multi-family residences won't come back for two years.

Unlike the existing blue cart program, this study would examine ways to include private recycling companies. These companies lamented their loss of business when the city introduced curbside recycling.

A recent city study suggested that 22 per cent of garbage from apartment buildings, condos and townhouses is recyclable.