Saskatoon City Council has decided to “kick the can” to October on “Pay as you Throw” and a waste utility. City Council voted 7-4 on receiving more information about organics, a “Pay per tip,” and costs for organics programs in other Canadian cities to be presented at next month’s council meeting. City Council started talking about organics and waste collection at 3 in the afternoon and discussions took place until 11 at night on Monday. Councillor Darren Hill was hoping to have the information come back to council in December, he says the timelines given are administration’s and not council’s although Council chose to go with October over December. Councillor Ann Iwanchuk showed her concern for having residents pay for waste through a waste utility rather than property taxes. She says as the utility is proposed, the breakeven point would be a house valued at $700 thousand, that’s the point where the amount of property tax levels with a utility bill. After hours of discussion many questions remain unanswered and residents of Saskatoon will have to wait another month to find out what changes, if at all any will be coming to waste and organics collection in the city.
The three main points council was discussing about waste collection was the implementation of a green organics bin for single family home, that residents would be able to choose the size of garbage bin and pay based on the size of bin they chose and that garbage be paid for through a waste utility rather than through property taxes.
No decisions have been made and City Council is set to meet in October on the 22nd.

Saskatoon City Council unanimously voted in favour of starting a pilot project with SARCAN.
The project will allow residents to drop off glass recycling including pickle and mason jars to all four of the city’s SARCAN locations.
Residents will still be able to put glass recycling in their blue bins although a city report says that 90 per cent of glass currently being recycled breaks before it arrives at recycling facilties.
If the one year pilot project is successful, city administration could recommend that glass be banned from the blue bins.
Earlier this year, plastic bags were banned from the curbside recycling program.
The reasoning behind that decision was due to the fact that there’s no-longer a world market for the soft, stretchy plastic.