Town signs off on donating recyclables revenue

By Trevor Busch
Taber Times
tbusch@tabertimes.com

Town council has signed off on a policy and procedure which will open up a recyclables revenue stream for community groups.

At their April 25 regular meeting, town council voted unanimously (5-0) to adopt the Collection of Refundable Beverage Containers Policy, and further accepts the Collection of Refundable Beverage Containers Procedure, as information. Coun.(s) Jack Brewin and Joe Strojwas were absent from the meeting.

Over the last two years, the town has installed 13 new garbage/recycling receptacles around the community (double Haul-All bins with garbage on one side, recycling on the other, with photo wraps). Five were installed in 2015, and a grant was received to install eight more in 2016. Locations include Confederation Park, the downtown area, Westview Estates, and Ken McDonald Memorial Sports Park.

Responding to a question from Coun. Laura Ross-Giroux on potential liability issues for the town involving volunteers making collections of beverage containers, recreation director Aline Holmen indicated the town’s current insurance would cover volunteers.

“I would think that our insurance, because it covers volunteers for other things, our insurance would cover that.”

A component of the grant funding that was received requires the town to report the amount of refundable beverage containers collected to the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation.

At their April 11 regular meeting, town council had voted unanimously to direct administration to prepare a policy and procedure that allows community groups to collect refundable items from the town’s external recycling bins located in various areas around Taber.

The new policy and procedure regarding collection of refundable beverage containers refers to collection of the town’s outdoor, refundable bins for a period of one year. According to administration, the process will likely be too late to initiate in 2016, but town staff are able to collect the refundable beverage containers until such time as a user group is chosen. Staff resources will be required to advertise and organize the program, and set up an agreement.