Kelly Clune: Open Letter to Simcoe County Council

Letter from Kelly Clune Posted November 9 2011

Dumping on another community was not acceptable 21 years ago, and it is still not acceptable.

Simcoe County needs to get responsible for reducing waste now to:

1. Save County residents the huge expense that will come with exporting garbage; and 

2. Eliminate the negative impact to our air, land and water from burning wasted resources.

Twenty-one years ago Simcoe County implemented a policy to prohibit the import and export of residential waste to protect it from being dumped on by another community.   The County has managed to stall effective waste reduction and diversion programs for over two decades.  

Now County Councillors have decided that it is ok to dump on another community.  These are the same County Councillors who recently voted against taking serious measures to reduce waste in the County.   

 County Councillors could demonstrate a commitment to reduce waste and address this urgent situation by: 

1.     Lobbying the province to require producers to pay for the life cycle of their products/packaging, including Deposit-Returns (See:http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/deposit-returns-needed-in-ontario/)

2.     Implementing strategies such as mandatory recycling and composting bylaws and a full user pay program for garbage.

The fact that the County has less than 10 years of landfill space is not new information.  Serious waste reduction measures could have been taken decades ago.   There is no more time to waste!  

To protect our resources today and to respect resources for future generations it is essential to implement serious waste reduction strategies now.  

With strong leadership the County could become a model for waste reduction across the country.

Looking forward to positive leadership in the County,

Kelly Clune