Clear information needed on recycling

In a rush to create a new waste utility, administration made numerous errors in the Sept. 24 city council meeting when answering questions about recycling.

Administration stated glass “is not acting as a contaminant to those other recyclable materials.” The reality of singlestream processing shows glass is absolutely a major contaminant. It embeds in cardboard, paper and plastic and reduces quality. Administration told Coun. Dubois glass was not part of the recycling contracts and the contractors, Loraas and Cosmo, weren’t forced to take it.

Schedule 1 in both publicly available recycling contracts indicates these companies are required to accept ‘glass-food and beverage containers.’ Administration also agreed with the statement that broken glass “is sorted prior to getting where actual humans are touching it.” This is false. My personal professional experience is that workers on the pre-sort line manually handle broken glass and it’s a hazard.

Administration was less than clear when answering about the performance of the curbside recycling program.

To correct the record for councillors Davies and Donauer, the curbside program processed about 9,300 tonnes last year, not the 12,000 to 14,000 tonnes mentioned. The goal, reaffirmed to councillor Penner at the time, was 26,000 tonnes and that is incorporated in the Loraas contract.

Lastly, for Coun. Iwanchuk, the diversion rate in 2010 was 23 per cent and after spending millions of dollars on new programs the diversion rate is still 23 per cent.

Bad information leads to bad decisions. Let’s slow down and do things right.

Cal Carter, Saskatoon