New landfills not the answer
GARBAGE DISPOSAL Relief will be short-lived if we don’t get policies in place to promote reduction of waste in general
Re Trash dispute set to cause heap of trouble Oct. 17.
I have read a number of articles warning of the “ looming garbage crisis” and I am saddened and disappointed that the discussion seems to end at where and when a new landfill site will be available to dispose of the enormous amounts of accumulating trash with any real longterm solutions left as an afterthought.
It is extremely short- sighted, not only of journalists, but of politicians and the public to believe a landfill site will solve our trash problems. Even if new sites can be found in time to take on the onslaught of garbage after Michigan closes its borders, this relief will be shortlived if we don’t get policies in place to promote the reduction of waste generally.
It seems painfully obvious that measures can be taken in this direction and can be more immediate than building a new landfill. For example, industries need to be regulated against excessive packaging and should be required to recycle as in private dwellings. Granted, regulation is viewed negatively by government officials who want to keep their business allies happy. However, we will all be up to our ankles in garbage if something isn’t done soon.
Another initiative should be to implement wet waste collection/ composting which would reduce the intake of curbside solid waste drastically. These efforts have been in operation in several cities in Ontario so there is no reason why they cannot be implemented provincewide.
Additionally, Ottawa is currently in negotiations to test a new development from Plasco Energy Group that would break down garbage into a non- emitting synthetic gas that would then be transformed into a new form of energy to be fed into the power grid. This is something Ontario and the rest of Canada should be taking into serious consideration as it would solve not only the trash crisis but also the energy crisis.
It is time we started to be proactive about the state of our province, country, and world at large. This cannot be turned into a jurisdictional dispute by opposing MPPs. This is not an issue of who holds responsibility; we all do. The fact is that we do not have an infinite amount of space in which to store garbage. We must be thinking of preventative measures instead of scrambling to clean up our messes after the fact. Shauna Cade, Mississauga