AB
Alberta’s Recycling Program
Alberta’s transition to Extended Producer Responsibility starts on April 1, 2025. Circular Materials is representing brand owners obligated by the Extended Producer Responsibility Regulation under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act.
Transition to Extended Producer Responsibility: Community Curbside and Depot Service Agreements
Final community contracts which outline the service agreements for curbside and depot collection in opt-in or depot only communities are noted below.
Transition Models for Collection Services
To ensure a seamless transition in Alberta, Circular Materials is working with registered communities to transition their collection services to EPR via two different models:
- If a community opts-in, they continue to manage their current recycling collection contract through a service agreement with Circular Materials.
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If a community opts-out, Circular Materials will contract with the incumbent or an alternative collection Service Provider directly.
Timelines
- October 31, 2024: Deadline for Council approval for community opt-in agreement execution.
- November 30, 2024: Deadline for execution of opt-in community contracts.
- April 1, 2025: Launch phase 1.
Join our Municipal Working Group
To support ongoing collaboration with municipalities, we have established a Municipal Working Group as a forum to share feedback, raise questions and directly engage with our team.
You only need to register once to attend all the Municipal Working Group meetings. Once registered, you will be sent a confirmation email from Zoom and can add all the meeting dates to your calendar.
If you have questions, please contact aboperations@circularmaterials.ca
Depot FAQs
If you have any further questions, please contact us at ABoperations@circularmaterials.ca.
On review of the available GLs and financial data that was provided, there was found to be significant inconsistencies. As timelines are shortening, a new market rate approach was developed.
This pricing is based on a greater analysis of the available GL data, actual depot costs, and contractor information plus further data such as the type of depots and populations served. Offers reflect the collection of residential PPP materials only, not all depot operations.
Unfortunately, we are unable to share the exact calculation with your community. Each offer is based on the type or types of depots in your community such as staffed or unstaffed and the population served by the depot(s).
Please let us know what we should be considering and what is unique to your community. The offer is only to cover the residential PPP materials and not all depot operations.
Circular Materials cannot disclose confidential information such as the compensation offers being provided to other communities.
For ease of contracting, as Circular Materials has done with curbside agreements, communities will have a base offer to September 30, 2026. The Phase 2 requirements of the Alberta regulation will mean that many PPP depot only communities that have curbside garbage, will be provided with curbside PPP service for October 1, 2026.
The specifics of the services can be found in the MSA and Depot SOWs, however the services boil down to the following key activities:
- Depot Collections refers to the act of moving PPP collected at your depots to a receiving or processing facility. Circular Materials may want to contract you to continue your existing depot collection arrangements or opt to procure a contractor to collect the materials from your depot locations.
- Depot Operations refers to having PPP bins available for residents to use at your depot locations and providing instruction and guidance to residents at staffed depots to place the correct PPP materials in the correct bins.
FAQs
Check out our FAQs below to find out more about Alberta’s EPR transition.
If you have any further questions, please contact us at info@circularmaterials.ca.
Opt-in: Please contact Circular Materials at ABoperations@circularmaterials.ca to schedule a meeting to discuss the particulars of your current agreement and the potential for extension beyond April 1, 2025.
Opt-out: Please extend only until March 31, 2025, but ensure Circular Materials has confirmation as soon as possible of your intention to opt-out.
A community who chooses to opt-in initially can change to an opt-out service model later. However, a community who chooses to opt-out initially, can not change their service model to opt-in later.
Opt-in: Circular Materials will work with you to determine a compensation offer based on your current contract and will enter into an agreement with you for the same term. You will continue to manage your current service provider agreement.
Opt-out: Circular Materials will negotiate with your incumbent service provider as a first option, review term remaining, and review bridge agreement options where possible.
Opt-in and opt-out service models only apply to curbside collection. Should your depot(s) be eligible, we would work directly with your community on a separate agreement for which would either be a Depot Operations Statement of Work or an RCT (Receive, Consolidate, and Transfer) Statement of Work depending on the services we are looking to contract for.
Circular Materials will schedule a meeting once a community has completed the required documentation to plan next steps. Meetings will take place throughout July-September 2024 to work to finalize financial offers.
Circular Materials will work to ensure minimal impact to residents’ recycling services. The regulation requires a minimum service level of every two weeks for curbside recycling collection. Circular Materials will do their best to keep the service level frequency the same as it is currently. Material tonnages will need to be confirmed for your community to support this process.
Opt-in and opt-out service models only apply to curbside collection. Should your depot(s) be eligible, we would work directly with your community on a separate agreement for which would either be a Depot Operations Statement of Work or an RCT (Receive, Consolidate, and Transfer) Statement of Work depending on the services we are looking to contract for.
Circular Materials will need to review these details in meetings with each community and through detailed financial discussions. Access to your general ledger will help confirm how services and financial offers will be structured when there are shared land use, ownership or leasing implications relating to depots in Alberta.