December 10, 2001
Jacquie McInnes, Staff Writer
*Metroland News
DURHAM - In the 1990s our collective conscious slowly awakened to the idea of waste diversion. Residents who had grown up throwing out the whole package -- including the wrapping -- slowly began to get the hang of the 'three Rs': reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Now at the turn of the new millennium, it's time to take the next step, says Durham Region's waste manager, Peter Watson.
Over the next six years, the Region is hoping to increase its waste diversion out of landfill to at least 50 per cent of all garbage. To do it will mean taking the evolution of garbage disposal to the next level.
"The way we put out our garbage has changed significantly over the last 15 years from where we essentially put everything in a garbage bag that went to the dump," says Mr. Watson. "Now residents are very comfortable separating cardboard, papers, cans and plastic containers into the Blue Box. Fourteen years ago we had no Blue Box. Today we divert 33,000 tonnes of garbage a year."
Last year, the Region brought in $4 million from those materials that help offset the cost of waste disposal services, he notes."And we all know no revenue is generated from the sale of garbage," to landfill.
While Mr. Watson acknowledges he has heard complaints the Blue Box program could go even further, he says really it's "pretty much at its limit. Certain plastics, there is no market for. We can collect them and process them and bundle and bale them but we really need to have a market. We have to be able to say to the residents 'the products you put in the Blue Box will be reused and recycled.' That is absolutely essential."
Residents are doing a fabulous job with the program, he adds. There's more than a 90-per cent participation rate and the quality of the recyclables is very high.
But the Blue Box program is just half the equation, he suggests.
"The next evolution is food waste. All that kitchen goop generates two products; electricity and compost." And if there is a use for it then "it makes very little sense to put these things in a hill and bury them forever," concludes Mr. Watson.
The Sierra Club of Canada, an environmental watchdog group, agrees the process of using organic waste to create electricity and compost appears to be an environmentally-friendly and ideal way to reduce the amount of garbage going to landfill while creating a viable product, says Irene Kock, a Durham-area spokesman for the group.
In fact, there seems to be little or no debate on the benefits of collecting organic waste out of the garbage stream. The question, it seems, is getting all stakeholders to agree on how and when to begin.
Each of Durham's eight municipalities is responsible for its own collection while the Region is responsible for the disposal. That system has worked well with traditional garbage pick-up. But if the Region hopes to meet its diversion targets it needs a more cohesive collection system across Durham, says Mr. Watson.
But not all municipalities are ready to jump on board with a regionwide collection system. "One of the problems is the governance issue," Oshawa Mayor Nancy Diamond says. "We (Oshawa) have a skilled staff and we like the same people serving the same neighbourhoods." She suggests other municipalities don't all have the same "philosophy" as the City. Still, she says, Oshawa "has always been flexible and very supportive of recycling projects." It's not impossible that the City could look at a composting program, she says.
Durham's citizens cannot afford politicians worrying about municipal autonomy on this issue, suggests Rick Johnson, the Region's works committee chairman. Mr. Johnson, who campaigned more than a decade ago to get dumps out of Pickering, says Durham is "on the verge of a crisis situation" with its garbage and must focus on whatever method will ensure it continues to have control over its own waste management. With the Keele Valley landfill site poised to close at the end of 2002, he suggests the less trash there is to take to landfill the better off residents will fare both economically and environmentally.
"If we can continue to divert, there is still the possibility of landfill capacity in southern Ontario," he says, noting he doesn't believe it's in Durham's best interest to send garbage to Michigan, a route taken recently by Toronto. "The capability is still there for us to achieve diversion and manage our own waste without going south of the border," he says. "We've definitely got to change the way we collect."
In Clarington, Uxbridge, Scugog and Brock that call is about to be answered, says Mr. Watson. The four municipalities, all of which are coming to the end of contracts with waste collection companies, have agreed to allow the Region to collect waste on their behalf. Tenders are currently being considered but regardless of which company gets the job, there will likely be a three-stream collection system within the next six months in those areas, he says.
Residents will be given containers for collecting organic waste, which will be taken to a composting facility. At the same time, all four will introduce a three-garbage bag maximum, a first for Durham Region, he says. If residents want to put out more than three bags, they will have to purchase tags for them. A 'white goods' collection is also being introduced to get appliances and scrap metal out of landfill as well in those municipalities. In those communities, Mr. Watson predicts, the diversion rate will soon be well over the 50-per cent goal.
Elsewhere in the region, the idea of collection innovations is also starting to percolate. Nine years ago, Coun. Johnson says, he visited Germany where he saw a collection system utilizing a cart to collect three-streams of waste: organic waste, recyclables and garbage for landfill. At that time, he says, Durham simply wasn't ready to embrace such an advanced system.
But times may have changed, suggests his fellow Pickering Councillor Maurice Brenner, who spearheaded that city's current pilot project using the carts.
In its first month of operation, Coun. Brenner reports the program has been running at a 98 per cent participation rate in the 516 home pilot neighbourhood, and has averaged between 78 and 80 per cent diversion of garbage out of landfill. Coun. Brenner says the system could take Durham well over the top in its diversion goals and get it there much faster than the 2006 objective. But, he adds, "The only way to take this out of the pilot project and implement it citywide is to have volume. We would like to see buy-in from all of the Region." Although the northern municipalities and Clarington will already have a system in place prior to a possible launch of the carts beyond the pilot area, Coun. Brenner is hopeful Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa can be convinced to join in.
Logistically, that may take some political will, notes Mr. Watson. Ajax's current collection contract doesn't expire until 2006 while Whitby and Oshawa will have to decide to retool their municipally-run system.
In the end the bottom line just may save the environment, suggests Coun. Johnson. If Durham's taxpayers "know their taxes will be lower at the end of the day" garbage reduction will become a reality, he predicts.
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