Over 80 per cent of households in the city of Portage la Prairie are participating in the residential green box recycling program, the 2016 solid waste annual report explains.

Transportation Committee chair Melissa Draycott discussed several highlights and statistics of the report in the committee portion of city council's meeting Monday evening at City Hall. The report examined several solid waste programs operated by the city including: residential solid waste collection, curbside recycling, curbside yard waste collection, compost, tree-burning, hazardous waste collection and electronic waste disposal.

The total residential solid waste in 2016 was 4,896 tonnes, with about 1,566 tonnes diverted from the landfill through various control programs — a diversion rate of 32 per cent — Draycott explains.

According to the report, in 2016, the city issued 255 green boxes and managed to divert upwards of 852,284 kilograms of residential recyclable waste — or 66 kilograms per person — from the landfill.

“That goes to one of things definitely stands for: to reduce, reuse and recycle,” Draycott says.

The curbside yard waste program collected about 13,076 bags, weighing more than 78,000 kilograms, of compostable yard waste between May and October. In 2015, more than 20,729 bags weighing over 125,000 kilograms were collected.

The Christmas tree pick up program collected about 1,202 kilograms, or 331 trees, in 2016. In total, more than 193,000 kilograms of tree waste was taken to the city's burn site over the past year.

Household hazardous waste collection decreased in 2016. About 620 kilograms and 4,775 litres of waste were diverted from the landfill on hazardous waste collection day Oct. 1, 2016, lower than the 1,310 kilograms and 7,127 litres collected in 2015. The solid waste annual report speculates “this may be due to all the current recycling programs available to residents.”

Over 76 tonnes of electronic waste — including items such as computers, televisions and printers — was collected to be recycled in 2016. Electronic waste collection is handled in collaboration between the city and Portage and District Recycling Inc., the report explains, with the city funding 65 per cent of the costs of handling, sorting, stacking and preparation of electronic waste.