SPB Rehashing the Recycle Rules
Monday, January 11, 2010New waste rules in South Bruce Peninsula
South Bruce Peninsula
by Kevin BernardA new Waste management bylaw is now in effect in South Bruce Peninsula.
Councillor Dan Kerr says the changes went into effect January 1st.
Up until now, you were allowed 2 free bags at the curb before having to pay with a bag-tag.
Kerr says now,.... residents get one free bag ... before paying for trash at the curb.
South Bruce peninsula also put a maximum of 3 bags for each home and no bag can contain more than 10 percent of recyclable material.
Councillor Dan Kerr says there is too much recyclable material going out in the regular garbage and these changes are designed to encourage residents to recycle more.
Kerr says expanding the current landfill will cost the town about 5 million dollars, so cutting back on items going to the dump will help extend the life of the current landfill.
Owen Sound , 97.9 The Beach, Port Elgin
My lord this is tedious. Can Councillor Kerr then tell us
- which items are and which items are not included as 'recycle' material? For example, if I use newspaper to protect the floor while scraping out a pumpkin, is the soiled newsprint recycle material? Why are cake covers rejected but roast chicken covers not? The 1-800 number to field the endless list would likely cost more than the new rules save!
- Why, pray do tell, are many materials popularly recycled in just about every other industrial nation rejected by our curbside collections? Plastic bags, instant noodle cups (#6), the list is considerable and disappointing. Is it really Ecologically Valid to burn fossil fuel driving out to the dump to dispose of a single Pizza Box?
- How can we be so limited in our recycle repertoire while neighbouring townships are not? Could it dare be because we simply cannot cooperate with those townships to share the waste-burden problem?
- I hear the bottom has dropped out of the recycle paper market, so I'm just curious, if we can't sell it, what then do we actually do with all that old paper? What products can I buy safe in believing that it contains some strong measure of SBP Recycled Material?
2 comments
Another really strange weirdness is glass. Glass is by far one of the very best items for recycle, a beautifully ecologically-friendly material -- but they won't take a wineglass if it is cracked!! That alone is looney enough, but think then, what do they do with the blue-box glass the instant they get their hands on it? They hurl it into the truck. And nothing gets chipped? Similarly a coke can is no longer recyclable if it has been 'sufficiently' dented.
I don't think any pamphlet could hope to capture the intricacies of their what is and what isn't criteria. It would take a professional recycle technician with years of training, which is why, as I've said here before, many municipalities just take everything, in one truck (saving that dual carbon footprint right there) and then train staff at the dumpsite to stand by the conveyor belts and pick out what is from what isn't. The resulting recycle is reliable and even higher quality, it creates jobs <u>and</u> there's no need for the snitchlines for reporting illegal inclusions of insufficiently soiled or dented recyclables.
