Alberta Announces Long-Term Waste Strategy

As part of Waste Reduction Week, on Thursday, October 18 in Red Deer, Minister Rob Renner announced a new long-term waste strategy, which shares Waste Reduction Week's slogan "Too Good to Waste". The first action in the strategy is a new paint stewardship program that will enable Albertans to recycle used or leftover paint.

Other actions outlined in Too Good to Waste include a construction and demolition program, targeted disposal bans, and a paper and packaging program, aimed at significantly reducing the amount of waste sent to municipal landfills. In addition, the beverage container recycling regulation is currently under review.

Alberta’s paint program, coming into effect April 1, 2008, will put an environmental fee into place, ranging from 10 cents to $1, depending on the size of the container. The fee will be used to fund such things as the cost of recycling the paint, operating the program and educating consumers.

For more information about these stewardship programs, and to obtain a copy of the Too Good to Waste strategy, visit www.environment.alberta.ca.