Good News: City Saves Money on Stuff!
What follows is my January contribution to the Edmonton Examiner’s gracious ‘Councillor Connection‘ column space which rotates among us.
Since the Examiner is split run (there are, I believe, seven different versions, each localized to different parts of the city) people outside the South West would not see this. But I thought it might be of interest to readers of this blog, who seem to come from across the city.
This is my version; I haven’t compared it to what was published in the paper:
The news stories about the city with the greatest reverberation tend, unsurprisingly, to be about when things are going poorly. Sometimes this means citizens don’t hear about some of the successes we can all be proud of, though this newspaper is an excellent source of just that kind of news.
I wanted to share one such ‘good news’ story that I knew nothing about until this past year: the city’s Aggregate Recycling program. This is different from our very successful road sand recycling program, which has received a lot of good coverage and for which the city has been recognized with several awards.
The Aggregate Recycling program started with the city’s own supply of broken concrete and stripped asphalt more than thirty years ago. The thinking was that this waste material, rather then being landfilled as was the prevailing practice, could be crushed and sorted like gravel for use in city projects.
Our transportation department has tested the large aggregate in use and found the rough edges hold up better as a road bed then smoother river rock gravel of the sort normally used, meaning roads can last longer.
The City now processes more than 200,000 tonnes of concrete, soil cement, asphalt, gravel, bricks, paving stones and coarse sand annually. The city also accepts this material from citizens.
Of course it’s good to recycle, but the business case for this activity is very strong. In 2008 73,586 tonnes of waste were diverted from the landfill, saving $6.3 million in disposal costs; 187,449 tonnes of large aggregate was used in city construction projects, saving $3.8 million; 4,270 tonnes of smaller aggregate was used by roadway maintenance saving $320,000.
The total savings to the city were more than $10 million in 2008, and this value continues to grow.
Using recycled material also reduces the need to disturb land for quarrying in our region, which has a value too, though harder to quantify.
So next time you’re driving down a stretch of new or rebuilt road, remember it’s actually paved in part with good intentions – the kind that save public money and reduce our environmental impacts.
If you would like more information on public drop-off sites you can go to: tinyurl.com/aggregaterecycling
4 thoughts on “Good News: City Saves Money on Stuff!”
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Very interesting, I knew that the City recycled aggregate, but I had no idea that this added up to $10,000,000 in savings…yes, that’s alot of zeros. Great work.
Yes, that will pay for 10% of last year’s consulting costs. Let’s be frank though, Don. The present council has cost us hundreds of millions of dollars through poor management. The following will be the legacy of Edmonton city council 2007-2010.
#1: 23rd Ave interchange costs ballooning by 400%
#2: Consulting costs escalating exponentially
#3: Public transit reduced to a tool for developers
#4: Unable to attract a developer for The Quarters
#5: Blatant efforts by the mayor to involve taxpayer money for a billionaire’s arena
#6: Greisbach 1/8th developed, 10 years after it began
#7: Utter lack of development at or near Canada Packer’s lands (It’s near LRT, how can it be?)
#8: Threat to ban plastic bags
#9: Closing Canada’s oldest aerodrome and displacing 1000 jobs for a promise of nothing
#10: The still empty 7 acres at Century Park
#11: The continued deterioration of once thriving neighbourhoods because council’s zoning allows for multiple porn shops, pawn shops, cash stores, liquor stores and swingers bars so close together
#12: Edmonton city council’s increasing hostility to the free market and entrepreneurship
#13: The $2000 council saved by replacing the valley zoo train with a golf cart
#14: Snow plows not on retainer, then on retainer, then not on retainer
#15: Successive and significant tax increases with negligible increases in services.
#16: Overcrowded, unreliable buses and LRT
#17: An Expo bid that many Edmontonians feel is being forced down their throats.
#18: A council that lost touch with the democratic process.
#19: A nanny state where Edmontonians will be told How To Move, How To Grow, How To Live
#20: Multiple choice: Where would you find a burned-out, derelict 700,000 Sq.ft hospital sitting on 5 square city blocks, 8 years running? a) Kosovo, b) Edmonton, c) Chernobyl, d) Baghdad?
You and your colleagues would dare shut down an airport and put 600 acres of land on the market while this blight has been in Inglewood all these years? Do you really think anyone is buying your line?
I won’t take the bait, Dave J. I’m not sure what response you’re trying to elicit, but how’s this:
I would like to have a cup of coffee with you in real life and talk some of these issues over. I actually share your frustration on a few of these points. Some don’t really merit a response. Others are debatable, but not in the comments section of this particular post.
I’m sure you know how to get in touch.