Although the Town of Jasper is on the right track with its waste diversion efforts and programs, there’s still work that can be done.

That was the message council received last week during a presentation by Christina Seidel, a waste reduction consultant.

The Jasper area, not just the town site, currently has about a 25-per-cent diversion rate, according to a waste audit that was done in 2007. 

Seidel said if the municipality comes up with a strong social marketing campaign targeting organics and cardboard, she thinks that number can skyrocket.

“About half of the waste stream can still be diverted within your existing diversion programs, both the composting program and the recycling program.

“With some of the tweaks we’ve suggested (in the Solid Waste Management Strategy) and then an aggressive social marketing program, I think you can easily get over 50 per cent with your existing system,” she said.

She pointed to the Social Norms campaign that the municipality participates in with other groups in the community, as a positive example of social marketing in Jasper.

“Social marketing is really what makes or breaks any program,” she said.

Ken Quackenbush, director of environmental services, said it’s great to have Seidel’s report to help the municipality prioritize its next steps. 

He also noted that it’s good to see that the direction the department has taken and the programs it has instated are on track with the recommendations in the report.

“None of the recommendations are a huge deviation in strategy or anything, so that is really good,” he said. “I think it reaffirms that we haven’t been way off track with what we’ve been doing.” 

Seidel agreed.

“Really, where administration has been sending you (council) and where the planning process has been sending you, to this point, is bang on,” she said. 

“It’s all about tweaking. It’s about refining. It’s about expanding and then it’s about promoting the heck out of it.”