Recycling through taxation

Times Colonist (Victoria)
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Page: A14
Section: Comment
Source: Times Colonist

The Capital Regional District's recycling program is, it appears, a victim of its own success.

The diversion of enormous amounts of recyclable waste from the trash stream has reduced tipping-fee revenue at the Hartland landfill. This creates a problem, since those tipping fees underwrite the CRD's recycling programs.

To maintain funding for recycling programs, the capital region needs to cut costs. It is proposing to close the landfill to the public on Mondays and increase tipping fees.

The closure proposal has upset the union representing the 17 full-time, part-time and auxiliary workers at the landfill, and should upset users as well. The CRD needs to reconsider how it pays for its recycling program.

When the blue box program was launched in March 1989, only glass bottles, tin and aluminum cans and newspapers were collected in Oak Bay, Saanich, Victoria and Esquimalt. By 2000 the program had expanded to include corrugated cardboard and rigid plastic containers in to all CRD municipalities.

A survey in 2004 showed that more than 90 per cent of eligible households use the service. Alan Summers, the capital region's solid waste senior manager, says 34 per cent of waste is being diverted. The goal is 60 per cent diversion by 2012 -- which would mean even less collected through tipping fees and result in higher recycling costs.

Summers says the CRD is the only jurisdiction in B.C. that pays for recycling entirely through operational fees. Along with tipping fees, sources of revenue include the sale of recyclables collected in blue boxes, royalties on methane gas collection at the landfill and fines.

Other regional districts, such as the one in the Cowichan Valley, receive funds through property taxes to maintain recycling programs.

The CRD should develop a financial plan that will ensure the long-term sustainability of its successful recycling program. Higher tipping fees and a Monday closure might provide relief, as will quarrying and aggregate sales.

That's not enough. In the end, everyone here benefits from the program, and everyone should bear some of the costs. The best way to do that is through property taxes, not tipping fees or service cuts.