Greater waste diversion should be county’s goal, Zero Waste: chair

By Douglas Glynn Midland Free Press July 7 2010
The chair of Zero Waste Simcoe –whose campaigns to reduce waste have helped spark a switch to cloth shopping bags -thinks Simcoe County should strive for greater waste diversion targets than those recommended last month by a consultant.
Stantec Consulting Ltd. presented the Simcoe County Waste Strategy Steering Committee with a report recommending how to deal with waste over the next 20 years. The report proposes a 77 per cent waste diversion target by 2030.
The county now diverts 57 per cent of all garbage from its landfills, which was among the highest in the province based on 2008 statistics.
In a news release issued Monday, Gordon McKay, Zero Waste Simcoe chair and vice-chair of the county’s steering committee , said that “while he is positive about much in the document,” he voted against its acceptance.
“I know the committee listened to what we (Zero Waste) had to say. The final document has incorporated a lot of Zero Waste methods and has many options that could lead us towards Zero Waste.
“However, it limits that initiative by setting a 77 per cent diversion target by 2030. Twenty years from now we will still be generating 50,000 tonnes of garbage a year.
If we set stretch targets and actively engage the residents of Simcoe County, we can move more rapidly towards Zero Waste,” he suggests.
Asked if he had a waste diversion number in mind, McKay said “it could be up to 90 per cent based on what we now have without extended producer responsibility (EPR) just by getting serious about our consumption of waste.
“A lot of people fail to realize that the consumer has tremendous power in choosing whether to buy waste or not,” he said. The approaching to achieving zero waste, he noted, involves attitudinal change on the part of the public and businesses.
McKay was, nonetheless, positive about the Stantec strategy, saying it addresses the full range of operational issues required to manage the County’s waste, including:
New methods for waste reduction and reuse;
* A variety of tools to improve recycling efforts;
* Consideration to building a centralized composting facility;
* Deferral of the decision to build a waste processing facility, to see what other options may become available; and,
* Use of landfill and garbage export for short term disposal, while providing stand-by landfill capacity for future needs.
“Zero Waste changes the way we generate our waste and what we do with it at the end of its useful life,” he said. “Its implementation will take decades. The recommended strategy can start us down that road.
“We would like to partner with the county to move down that road as quickly as possible. I think Zero Waste’s main strength is that we can organize a lot of events, such as street fairs or cloth bag campaigns more readily than the county.
“The strategy in the report calls for a classical marketing approach: we will tell you the rules and then we will come and make sure you are following the rules.
“Zero waste is a rapidly changing field. The consumer, in many respects, is ahead of the politicians. We are seeing diversion days. There are all sorts of creative events happening. We are about to launch a coffee cup campaign this fall.
These efforts should be happening in parallel with the county plan. The county will do the heavy lift with transport and depots, but a lot of what’s needed is educating people and helping bring about attitudinal change. We shouldn’t diminish the importance of that!”
McKay also believes a new committee with public representation should be constituted to provide “a little oversight and direction as the waste strategy is rolled out.”
The public became involved with dump Site 41 and was invited by the county to provide input to the waste management strategy.
“It only makes sense they should be involved as the waste strategy is rolled out,” he added.