All multi-family buildings in Calgary are now required to provide recycling services as per the City’s new waste and recycling bylaw, which took effect February 1st. The requirement applies to all condos, apartments and townhouses with five or more units.

Landlords and property managers must decide whether to hire a private company to handle the recycling or whether they will manage it themselves. Specifically, they are required to:

• Offer recycling storage on-site in addition to garbage storage
• Ensure there are enough containers to hold all the recycling
• Accept at least the same materials as Blue Carts (i.e. paper, glass jars, plastic bottles food cans, beverage containers, TetraPaks, etc.)
• Arrange to have the materials removed for recycling

The City is also developing a bylaw that will require multi-family complexes to divert food and yard waste from landfills through composting and/or other means. This bylaw will be brought forward to Council in October 2016 for approval.

Recycling collection in Calgary is not tax-supported for either single or multi-family homes. Blue Cart recycling is funded entirely through user fees, and recycling programs set up by multi-family complexes will be funded by the fees paid to service providers. The City of Calgary will not set or collect multi-family recycling fees, and taxes will not be raised to pay for the program.