Last year Drumheller residents received new garbage cans to help improve efficiency of garbage day collections, and things have been in the bag, town officials say.
At the present time, 3,155 carts are in service and were bought by the town for about $81.50 if priced individually.
“We used our own forces to unload the trucks prior to distribution by contractors, which is not included in the price,” Kendrick says.
Residents were asked to haul their bins, which hold five bags, out to their alley curbs for automated pickup by the garbage trucks.
Negotiations are in the works to purchase radio transmitter readers, which would read the radio frequency identification tag inside garbage cans now. Eventually, it would allow solid waste collection to become a utility, with a utility fee, having each can’s order billed when picked up.
“We’re one of the last in Alberta who haven’t changed from tax-based to utility-based. Contractors will then have to keep track of which cans they’ve collected to charge a fee.”
“Our idea was to put the tag in it to help locate them as well.”
Kendrick says the town is still negotiating a price for the reader, adding the system won’t be installed until council makes the decision, and would be in a future year’s capital budget.
“If you investigate other towns and villages, they charge fees and have all sorts of systems for weighing and charging for garbage,” says Kendrick.
