Just a thought, if I belonged to one of those groups that "adopt a road" for clean up, and after they implement this I find my section of road full of coloured garbage bags from people hurling them into the ditch, as opposed to paying the bag tax. Do I have to empty these bags into the stamped clear bags before I can have them picked up....

I saw the article in the Sun Times yesterday. My first comment to our council is "Why are we not recycling more?" neighbouring municipalities accept a lot more recycleable material than our township. I say to them get on with accepting more materials for recycling. Secondly, "Why do I have to buy my clear bags from the township at outrageous, inflated prices?" I prefer to buy my own 'biodegradable' clear bags. Are the ones to be provided by the township biodegradable? Most municipalites provide a fixed number of bag tags (or tagged bags) to rate payers, at least one per week. Why doesn't our township do that too? The article suggests the savings is equivalent to a 5% tax cut ... are our municipal tax rates going to be reduced by 5%? What about tourists that fill my garbage box with their bags of refuse? Is the township going to make me pay for that ... don't count on it. I will deliver the trash to council chambers. We can't even enforce existing bylaws regarding trash ... how is this going to be implemented? Maybe it's time for another municipal election. We need a proactive council with a vision and plan for our community, not the shoot from the hip, reactive bunch we currently have attempting to run the township.
kltpzyxm

As if by magic, in answer to my pray do tell, here now today the town has posted (and the Crier mimicked) the Missing Link in the recycling of our culture's number one most ubiquitous and bulksome packaging material:

Residents shall recycle corrugated cardboard at the following locations:

1. Louisa Street Parking Lot, Wiarton
2. Amabel Landfill Site, 1249 Sauble Falls Parkway, Sauble Beach
3. Hepworth Legion Parking Lot, 9 Legion Road, Hepworth

Please place flattened cardboard in the depot bins.
[ South Bruce Peninsula Crier: Corrugated Cardboard Recycling ]

and there you have it. Of course, the mind reels at the carbon-footprint of all those 2000-residents' individual family sedans packed to the brim with the empty Christmas parcel packaging and box-mall booty boxes, all driving the same trip to these Three (3) oh so convenient locations. Makes my Global all Warm just contemplating that scene, not to mention the missing detail on what to do if you get there and find the bin jam packed full to the slot (drive over to the other two?) and therein is Today's Lesson in Municipal Awareness of Ecology.

Hey Wayne, instead of plastic bags, how about I give you some 4 year old cardboard boxes for your cleanup crews? or maybe I could spraypaint them blue with a nice "Recycle HERE!" logo and leave them beside the beachside oil drums? Or maybe I could build a nice shantytown hovel in the empty lot across the street and rent it out for $500/week ...

For Lamont and Kerr and the rest of the committee. That will isolate their particular wavelength which is different than the one the rest of us are on. We pay taxes for the delivery of basic services and we elect Council to expertly manage that.

Lower taxes? Don't expect that to last.

This idea to sell bags amounts to a degradation of a basic service and should not be tolerated. We didn't elect them to do that. The dump will last 25 years with various costs to expand amortized. There is also a mothballed landfill in Abermarle and in the next two decades we will be well into incineration probably piloted by Georgian Bluffs since they are mostly out of room. Yes I know the tinfoil hats don't like incineration but it makes more sense than burning styrofoam and shrink wrap in the wood stove to save $3.00 per week in bag charges.

Would you believe a couple of people on the previous council actually wanted to take garbage from other municipalities for a fee because we had lots of capacity? How quickly things change, now they plant the scary idea that we will run out of room soon.

A two bag limit is a good compromise until we can improve recycling at a cost everyone can live with. That is what Lamont and Kerr should be working on.

That's just a disgusting concept. Clear garbage bags, who the heck wants to see that by the side of the road while they tiptoe through the tulips out for a stroll.

How about some privacy issues? Personally, I think the idea of clear bags infringes on the right to privacy. Ya, shredding is a great idea for some things. (Normally for recycling). Yet, there is just some icky-ness that people don't want to see.

Just do what Huron County does, if you "need" to pay for your garbage, buy the bag stickers "bag tags". We're at 2.50 per bag now.

Ya Dodge, and what about that icky Styrofoam? Last time I checked it had recycling numbers on it. Supposedly, down here we can't recycle it. . . yet it is supposedly recycle-able. There is a town shed supposedly full of it. . .I took a whack of it to our little dump, because the recyclers refused to take it, and they didn't want it either. If manufacturers started using actual peanuts to pack things that would be great, unless you had an allergy. There must be another substance out there.

One of the Town Shed's in Huron County, that is, not up by you.

... it will make the pickin's so much easier for the bears and racoons. take out all the guess-work, skip all the duds, just go straight for the stroganoff!

I am going to be investing in one of these:

www.bra.org/NEW/Green/indexmain.html

The way I figure it, as it digests stuff that you cannot put into a regular composter, and doesn't compost stuff that one can put in a regular composter, it's the way to go. The only thing that you will be throwing out will be the styrofoam, and some other household odds and sods that are not burnable (if you have a woodstove), or for recycling. Seems like an awesome idea :)

So ... the town wants to back out of providing common services (like trash collection), which I guess leaves only privatization as an option. Is this the first step in a brave new path?

Mayor Gwen Gilbert hopes to relay the message to the residents that their landfills are filling up quickly. ... Gilbert says they are also looking into implementing a user pay system where residents pay a dollar-fifty for each bag tag ...
Gilbert says the goal is to have a user pay system so that garbage collection can be taken off the tax roll.
[ Trash talk in South Bruce Peninsula ]

Mayor Gilbert and Council - what am I paying my taxes for? So you can sit around in meetings and come up with reactive, idiotic ideas? Five years and a million dollars to prepare for a new landfill ... time to get off you asses and start doing some real planning for our town. Do you have any idea what our township will look like in 5 to 10 years; where are your demographic studies; where is/are the vision statement/document(s)? What will the downtown part of Sauble beach look like in 2 or 3 years? Do you even have a clue where you are steering our ship? Please present your constituents with a well thought out plan and vision for the next twenty years rather than a new idea every week.

As an aside, good job in Hepworth (not). I have been through there the last couple of days when it rained and there are still flooded areas on the highway. Isn't the storm drain system supposed to keep the water off of the highway?

kltpzyxm

I can't for the life of me rember the official name, but on pictures of the old "Tanner's Mill" ( my long lost bequeathment) is a plaque which was an insurance marker. According to the brief explanation if the the biulding was on fire and it did not have on display one of these stamps then you were not covered for fire protection. The Fire guys would let your abode, thatched roof and all, burn to the ground.
I think if you paid the fee, on the front of the property you would have the "Garbage Plaque". This would inform the collectors that you have paid for the service and they will pick it up. Save the custom made bags and keep the hardware store's shelves stocked with Glads and let them make the money on selling them, like an honest bussiness person would
The "Snow plough Plaque" whereas the operator of the snow removal equipment would keep the blade on the road as he passed you home, as you have proof of having paid the extra for the service.
If no plaque then the operator would be required to lift the blade.
So I hope my history is right about this "insurance plaque" of England of old. Let me know if this same system would work here and now
wt

...the trash is gone...I can see all obstacles in my way.....
ok..ok..so I cant sing ..and mangle the words ;)
Have to agree with everyone about the expensive clear bags..hey I can get a box of 100 for cheap, and yes its recognized as eco friendly.Thing is..Its gross..there are some things that should be hidden and not shown off to public eyes.What about the tourists that rent and camp and they buy those 1 billion bags for 1.99.They will just end up on the side of the road or worse yet, in my garbage box(yes I found 10 bags shoved in when I was away..and I bought stickers so they would be taken away).
About the recycling..I would think that if all of bruce/grey got involved and had a huge recycling plant...there could be a lot more recycled and composted than there is now.But that actually involves discussion and negotiations.
Maybe we should just enocurage the bears to do more of their fair share to get rid of it all :)

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01100100011000010111011001100101
(figure it out!)

dave,
if i recall correctly, garbage bags are supposed to be left in a container for pickup, not just left at the side of the road. if this is a bylaw, then why isn't it enforced? and, yes i too am sick of tourists stuffing my garbage bin with their qarbage. i am considering putting a lock on mine.

anyone know the result of what when on last council meeting regarding this 'proposal'

kltpzyxm

The bag tag bylaw still stands ready for third reading but first Council feels they need to sell this bylaw to the public.

Several "open house" information sessions have been scheduled. The notice states only that these are presentation sessions for the proposed bag tag clear bag bylaw.

I fully expect a slick sales job. Zero tolerance for Lamont and Kerr if they try to sell you on paying for garbage bags this is not what they were elected for. Some members on Council are just looking for a way to avoid paying for a basic service so they can have money for frills such as a full time tourism promotion officer which is not a basic service and gives zero return to residential taxpayers for the money spent. In fact every tourist they bring in costs us all more money just to provide basic services such as garbage pickup. Bottom line we pay more taxes to promote tourism so we can pay more taxes.

The real reason for a bylaw that forces you to buy bag tags is not waste diversion it is wasteful spending and money diversion.

First session is Nov 12 at Wiarton Legion See schedule on Town website.

I could not bring myself to attend, the insanity of the whole issue was just too much to fathom. Instead I keep having that town-plan phrase, "milked for all its worth" swishing in my brain and wondering what sort of a terrible mistake it might have been to move here. The conversation out at the TH one evening turned to that whole lure in more cash fraud and I couldn't help it, I said, "This is the last naturally balanced ecology left in Southern Ontario; you people are already rich, fabulously rich beyond the wildest dreams of nearly the entire planet. Why are you so bent on ripping it up just to 'make money'?" I didn't get any answer, didn't really expect one.

'milked for all its worth' ... oh and lets not forget 'properly monetized' and other swell euphemisms for 'resource' exploitation. I wonder if this is what the Easter Islanders were chanting as they cut down the last tree. "It's all about the jobs!" I'll bet one of their 'leaders' said. At least once.

"looking for a way to avoid paying for a basic service so they can have money for frills such as a full time tourism promotion officer" -- thanks for that tip; it will be worth watching out for as the agenda unfurls over us.

I heard that there is going to be a meeting at the school tommorrow ( Saturday) to discuss this topic... I must of missed the ad, and I don't have the patience for the web site or is this nothing other than a rumour.
wt

A slick presentation using power point from Dan Kerr. We were told we need bag tags because our recycling was too low at 23% based on comparison of tonnage recycled vs tonnage dumped. Jay Kirkland asked if that statistic was skewed because our landfill has been a favourite dumping ground for garbage sourced outside the municipality for years because of cheaper rates.

The answer - yes. Our real recycling rate could be in the range 30-40% based on the opinion of someone I spoke to who should know. Not mentioned was the hundreds of loads of recycling the contractor has dumped in landfill because of contamination in the recycling load. I have seen this myself at our landfill site. This has to skew our recycling numbers.

This renders everything Kerr said as unreliable speculation and suspect. For example Kerr said that the life expectancy of our landfill could be 7-8 years or based on another 3 year average could be 17 years. Pick one. A current Councillor who I will not name here advised me that the numbers Kerr was using were suspect because of certain assumptions used and that the expected life was much longer. So our own Council is divided on the honesty of this presentation. Kerr forgot to mention that.

All of this suspect information is being used to sell a very complicated pay per bag program and complexity always breeds increased cost. We are a resort community with a heavy tourist load in the summer that largely does not give a damn where the garbage goes as long as they leave it here with the rent cheques. This makes it impossible to conclude outcomes based on the experience in other municipalities.

Now I am speculating but I will tell you that so take it any way you want. It would not take a great effort to move our recycling capture up 15% to 50% by improving our collection system. There were many cmplaints today about current programs. There is little justification for draconian measures as proposed. We will always have garbage and need more landfill space but the cost of expanding the landfill will go much higher if we delay the process a few years. Yet we are being told we must delay it.

A combined Bruce Grey incineration plant is economically feasable and will make our non recycleable garbage problems go away for the next 50 years or forever take your pick. We have far more problems handling and sorting and finding end users for our recycled garbage then the amortized cost of expanding our landfill site. I am speculating that incineration will also solve many of these recycling problems. For example a tonne of aluminium for scrap has dropped from $100 to $10. If it is contaminated with tin foil pie plates it is worth nothing. A bale of water bottles with some detached lids is worth nothing because of the loose lids. Prices are $250/tonne for polyethylene down from the $700 range. Paper is down to $50/tonne. The reality is that it is cheaper for a business to lanfill cardboard as a mixed load compared to shipping it to Toronto for recycling. The same applies to the Municipality and again this is a source of skewed figures when determining recycling rates. Sorting is the million dollar headache here. Toronto is currently debating what to do about plastic coffee cup lids contaminating paper recycling.

All this headache goes away with incineration. The temperatures are just too high. Sorting not required. For those gullible enough to listen to the anti incineration camp we have so many wood heated homes an incineration plant would never show up on the graph.

When we put the scales in at the landfill it was supposedly to generate fees and avoid the necessity of bag charges. Come on Council lets keep a promise.

First put $150,000 per year into reserve for increasing the landfill capacity. The preliminary work should start in March 2011 with provision to start a year earlier if conditions require it. By then we should have real good numbers on the existing capacity and we will have had a good kick at increasing the diversion rate.

Second, increase tipping fees to $225/tonne for mixed loads and $250 for 2010. Direct the increased amount to the reserve. This would put rates higher than Owen Sound and other nearby areas and protect any capacity we have from outside garbage sources without tying up manpower to monitor registration plates and police the source.

Third warn all non commercial users who would qualify for the bag tag clear bag program that the program will be started in fall of 2010 if we do not get diversion up to a 40% target. I don't want to leave it for the next council to decide. Future realistic targets would be higher with the same result if not met. We are a resort and rural community and we will not compare well with city diversion because some collection and other costs are higher. That is what realistic means.

Fourth make a renewed effort to do everything possible to increase diversion and educate everyone what will happen if targets are not met. There is room for improvement.

Fifth a program for handling stray and excess garbage resulting from the tourist trade should be created. Possibly increase fines and enforcement for dumping garbage and litter and redirect some parking revenue for homeowner help with unauthorized dumping.

Pros
So far seasonal residents have not been part of this discussion and that is a very good reason to hold off on this proposal (that is what it is as of now) for a time period through 2009 and even until fall 2010 as suggested.
There are some councillors who are not ready to vote for this to start in 2009 as proposed and this would put them in a better position to justify if the program is deemed needed by fall 2010.

We will always generate garbage and the landfill will have to be expanded that is inevitable. We have to have a plan in place for this to happen.

There will be some urgency to plan for incineration in Bruce and Grey so I would predict something in place by 2025 possibly sooner. This means we could lay out strategy and goals to meet for garbage starting now.

With this strategy a clear choice will be given to residents about which path they take in fall 2010. The fact we have capacity means we are luckier than most we have time to make choices.

i would like to know how we got to this situation in the first place. what the heck do we pay a planner for? especially one who works for both the county and the town .. talk about conflicting interests. i've said this before, our town has no plan that sets out what we collectively want our town to be in 20 to 30 years or even 5 years for that matter. why don't we fire the non-planner and get someone who knows what they are supposed to be doing? maybe if we didn't encourage tourism we could get another 100 years out of the landfill. i support recycling and also like the incineration idea particularly since the heat can be used to produce steam which can turn a turbine and generate electricity. i have also heard that the resulting slag can be used in place of gravel.
kltpzyxm

as you can see from the above, yes, Virginia, there really is a clear-bag clause, and if you want to take another run at the kangaroos, take heart: there's the Allenford Jump-up on the 19th; the full road-show tour schedule was posted here with RSS and everything.

The price of recycled aluminium has fallen to $10/tonne. Paper is $50/tonne down from $130. Some municipalities on contract will see higher prices until the contract renewal.

The only thing that supports diversion is a lack of landfill space as costs of collecting, sorting, storing and shipping have moved further away from any cost recovery. In this environment low tipping fees will be the least cost alternative.

I find that most residents are making a reasonable attempt to recycle and I do not believe it is residential waste that is responsible for our so called shortage of reserve capacity. It is especially not seasonal residents.

i read with interest today in the sun times an article about the economic downturn and its effect on the recycling business. i guess i just dont get it ... are we not recycling to help preserve the environment? everything costs ... recycling and dumping. we need to move beyond focusing on the $ we can get from recycling and focus on the environment. this is what it has always been about for me.

and, speaking of the economy ... can you believe the gall of the grey county council giving itself a 30% raise while many families are struggling financially?

kltpzyxm

How's this: We place a surcharge on the trash at the point of purchase and then, the best part, we let the vendor pocket the proceeds! Is that cool or what! This, my friends, is the staggering flash of brilliance that has bubbled out from the brains of those smart enough to become voting members of the Toronto city council:

Miller announced a 5-cent charge that is to be paid by consumers for each plastic bag used in, say, a grocery store. Most of these plastic bags end up in the garbage (most often used for containing the garbage), and this is seen as a Major Problem for solid waste management. The problem is that the profit from the sale of plastic bags ends up in the pockets of the grocery stores, who claim that they will use the windfall for things like "staff training" (presumably on how to handle customers who are upset at the increase in their grocery bill.
[ $0.05 of Knee-Jerk Stupidity from City Hall ]