Council agrees to waive fee for mattress disposal at landfill; recycling business closed

Moose Jaw -

City council has finally put to bed the additional $10 fee Moose Javians have been expected to pay when disposing of mattresses at the city dump.

In conjunction with the city's discontinuation of the mattress-recycling program, during Monday's council meeting, council removed the reference to mattresses and box springs in the waste management bylaw.

According to City Engineer Ryan Johnson, Moose Jaw Enviro Mattress Depot indicated in March it required the city to raise mattress recycling fees to at least $20 from $10 per mattress/box spring in order to break even.

However, after the city began charging $10 for mattresses in 2005, the rate of abandoned mattresses throughout Moose Jaw rose by 20 per cent and the city felt a further increase would only result in more abandoned mattresses.

In April 2009, the local mattress recycler ceased operations. As a result, the city no longer sees a need to charge a mattress recycling fee.

All councillors at Monday's council meeting, as well as the mayor, approved the fee elimination. However, the vote was split on whether to waive fees for the recycling company to dispose of those mattresses it already collected that have not yet been completely recycled.

Councillors Dawn Luhning and Mary-Dell Findlay voted against the waiver motion.

Luhning said the city shouldn't absorb the expenses for companies using municipal services.

"There are costs to doing business," said Luhning.

Coun. Regina Sagal-Hendry said the company had already compacted and broken down a great deal of mattress material that must now go to the landfill and the city should recognize the material that company already removed from the landfill. For those reasons, she supported waiving landfill fees for the company.

The majority of council agreed with her and waived the fees. Coun. Darin Chow was absent.

Sagal-Hendry also said Moose Jaw could have been the centre of mattress recycling on the Prairies, keeping mattresses (which take up lots of landfill space) out of refuse in Moose Jaw and various other communities.

She added she would continue to campaign for government funding that would make recycling a viable business.

Carter Haydu can be reached at 691-1265.

Elihu: - September 18, 2009 at 14:55:18

Sucks to be eco-responsible, even our waste costs too much to deal with.

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Optimist: - September 18, 2009 at 14:41:38

I believe it recycling works if it's cost effective. Back in the 70's Saskatchewan banned aluminum cans because our ditches were filled with them. Now we're paying over a $1.00 for a can of pop to cover the recycle fee.

It's too bad mattress manufacturers couldn't come up with something more friendly to the environment than pocket coils.

suckers: - September 18, 2009 at 14:30:16

hahahahahahaha SUCKERS, i always said why recycle beds and not couches and chairs they are made of the same things lol. saw this comming a mile away and you know u did too . cant wait for election day

perplexed: - September 18, 2009 at 14:20:53

Sucks to be a tax payer right now, especially if you paid the $10.00 to recycle a mattress. Enviro Mattress Depot got $8.50 from the city to recycle the mattress and now they are dumping all the mattresses and box springs collected into the dump on our dime. The council waived the tipping fees, yet the original agreement stated that should the company cease operations regular tipping charges would apply.
Now you know that you can have an agreement with the city, signed, sealed, and delivered and if it doesn't work out for you, no worries, fees will be waived. What a scam to the taxpayers. Councillors are not looking after the best interestes of ALL taxpayers, just the priviledged few.
And what did our councillor who is so concerned about the environment do? She is the one who recommended that the fees be waived.

G: - September 18, 2009 at 14:19:17

Simple solution- pile them at the dump, when the pile gets big enough burn it. The combustilbles burn, Five Star comes and hauls the steel away for RECYCLING, nothing but ashes left in dump. Very simple people, but I'm sure there will still be objections to the burning.

J: - September 18, 2009 at 13:58:42

That's unfortunate that the Enviro Mattress Co had to close. We need to have mattresses recycled and not fill our landfill. Adding an enviro tax/fee on mattresses would have done that. After all we do it on used oil, tires and soft drinks why not mattresses as well Recycling costs money but so does NOT recycling...it just shows up on our tax bill down the road when we need a new larger landfill etc.

what the: - September 18, 2009 at 13:51:43

Was there not a story in the paper this spring telling us they were going to expand?
Plus what are they going to do with the hundreds of mattresses that they have left on the east side of the city, there is the real story here. as the city will have to pay for that one as well.

Jimmy: - September 18, 2009 at 13:43:44

Lisa, I think that a lipe of mattress springs in that area actually improves the value of the properties! :D

Jimmy: - September 18, 2009 at 13:37:49

I'm sure burning at municipal dumps is illegal, but I suppose that doesn't prevent coincidental lightening strikes. I doubt that Silver Star wants the spring steel from the mattresses since it is so bulky in it's spring form. I don't think you can crush it, and it is too expensive to ship in it's current form. I don't think that Silver Star has any way to melt it down first.

Lisa: - September 18, 2009 at 13:24:14

Does this mean that that pile of junk (wired mattress's) is going to sit by the old power plant for the next 50 years??

Humberto D: - September 18, 2009 at 13:03:56

They actually went to the city with their hand out asking for the fee to be incr3eased to 30 from 10. What a joke.
And Sagal Hendry went on and on about how we could have had mattresses from all of Western Canada shipped here for recycling. Put down the rose coloured glasses RSH. How much do you think it would cost to ship used mattresses? What a joke!