Higher waste diversion rates a sweet goal
As Niagara looks to improve the way we dispose of our trash, one thing seems clear: Few people are fans of storing it in clear-plastic bags.
Requiring people to use them — and not cans or black plastic bags — is just one of the options on the table as Niagara Region looks for ways to boost recycling and composting while reducing the amount of garbage sent to landfill.
“Clear bags would be an unpleasant experience (for the neighbourhood),” noted Niagara-on-the-Lake Coun. Clare Cameron, during a town council discussion, one of many similar discussions taking place in council chambers across Niagara. Niagara Falls city Coun. Wayne Campbell said when he tried a clear plastic bag, the contents ended up all over his driveway after someone saw what was inside and wanted it.
The thought of using clear bags is unappealing: A full bag would be ugly, and there are some items we just don’t want our neighbours to see (though there is the option of using an opaque bag for those unmentionables, inside the clear bag).
It’s still early in the process — changes won’t be put in place until after Niagara Region’s contract with its current private collector Emterra expires in 2021.
And there are other cards the region can play as it tries to ease the strain on landfills.
Possibilities include picking up curbside trash every two weeks, instead of weekly (while doubling can and bag limits); and eliminating curbside collection of large appliances and metal items.
The region might also bring some of the waste management services back in-house. But clearly, it is hugely expensive to keep dumping garbage at landfills.
A landfill, even a well-designed one, is an environmental threat that is costly to maintain and, at some point, must be decommission and replaced.
But back to those clear plastic bags. Even though region staff acknowledge people don’t want to have to use them, the public works committee wisely directed staff to keep that option open when requests for proposals are sought from private companies interested in running the service. Despite their unpopularity, the fact is those bags have proven successful elsewhere. And that is the point of this process, is it not?
Halifax, N.S., has used clear bags since 2015. That city’s manager of solid waste collection says residents have accepted the practice, and the result has been a 24 per cent reduction in garbage going to landfill. At the same time, there was a 13 per cent jump in materials taken to recycling facilities, according to a CBC report.
Parts of Newfoundland started requiring clear plastic bags last year. And, during a presentation to Wainfleet council this month, Waterloo Region was touted as another area where clear plastic bag use made a difference. Brad Whitelaw, a program manager in Niagara’s waste management department, said Waterloo realized a 35 per cent reduction in trash-to-landfill by mandating the use of clear plastic bags and switching to collection every second week.
Waterloo now has an 80 per cent diversion rate; by contrast, Whitelaw said, Niagara manages only 56 per cent under its current system.
He also said an audit of bags put out at the curbside in Niagara showed only about 36 per cent of the content really belonged in a landfill. The rest, he said, should be recycled or composted.
A clear plastic bag full of garbage is unsightly, but no worse in front of your house than in front of your neighbour’s or of the family down the street. They pretty much all look the same. If using clear bags and offering pickup every two weeks will save millions of dollars, benefit the environment and reduce our dependency on landfills, shouldn’t we hold our noses and at least give them a try?