Banff wants to help tourists recycle

An Alberta town that's an international symbol for Canada's national parks wants to go a little greener by improving its recycling program.

Every year, the Rocky Mountain town of Banff ships more than 7,000 of tons of garbage to Calgary's landfill.

Town officials are now going after a $750,000 federal grant money, hoping to halve their wastewith a better recycling program.

Dr. Gaby Zezulka-Mailloux, a Banff environmentalist, said the town needs to make recycling more accessible. Currently, thereare tworecycling drop-offs and a trailer that goes to different neighbourhoods.

"We need to make the facilities really obvious and really accessible," she said. "Visitors to Banff are not going to spend an extra 40 minutes of their vacation time seeking out a recycling depot."

The town also wants to start collecting organic waste.

Most of the city's garbage comes from the 140 hotels and restaurants and nearly 20,000 tourists that visit the town every day, said Chad Townsend, Banff's environmental services co-ordinator.

"Food waste is a very large part of our waste. So we have a great opportunity to start diverting that," he said.