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Halifax Regional Municipality could pick up $3.17 million a year if it collected beer and wine bottles instead of using the province’s Enviro-Depots, an institution that a staff report says became outdated with the advent of curbside recycling.

That projection comes on top of the $1 million in revenue the city expects to lose when the resource recovery fund cuts its share of the revenue from bottle deposits. That funding is used to meet provincial targets to reduce waste in landfills, something the municipality would struggle to do without that revenue stream, the report to the environment and sustainability committee said.

The city’s manager for solid waste resources questioned Thursday whether the province’s Resource Recovery Fund Board has served its purpose. When the fund was established in 1995, not all the province’s municipalities offered curbside recycling, nor was recycling

de rigueur for the times, Gord Helm said.

“This discussion is timely not only because of the forecasted $1-million reduction to HRM funding, but also in terms of the province undertaking a regulatory review of the (Resource Recovery Fund Board) model,” Helm said in a staff report.

In essence, the program gave residents a financial incentive to recycle, he said. Since then, however, there’s been a cultural and institutional shift. Haligonians already separate plastics and metals from their garbage and can leave that outside for pickup.

The report suggested that residents could instead pay a five-cent deposit on beverage containers — instead of the current 10 cents — all of which would go to the municipality to cover the cost of the processing. It also means residents could put all their recycling in one place, Helm said, and reduce “scavenging” for more valuable recyclables.

The other alternative would be an increase to deposit fees so that the increased revenue could be distributed to the municipalities.

Deputy Mayor Reg Rankin said it makes no sense to burden consumers with more deposit fees when the municipality can provide a more cost-effective service.

“When this started, there was no municipal system and now you have two systems competing, and that’s highly inefficient,” he said. “So they’re grasping for oxygen.

“Of course, the remedy is to let the municipalities do the municipal programs.”

The matter will go to regional council for discussion, with the committee’s recommendation that it write to the province to revisit the funding arrangement.

The cuts to municipal revenues are expected to come down this fiscal year, a reaction to an independent review of the Resource Recovery Fund Board in 2011. William Hogg found the fund’s operating costs would outpace revenues by 2016, based on the financial picture of the past five years.

(lfraser@herald.ca)

LTownLiquorPig wrote:That'd be a solid move, put the enviro depots out of work. Mostly small family run businesses in my neck of the woods. And where would I get my empties? Like hell I'm gonna drop a buck a bottle at NG.