“Intestinal fortitude” invoked as key to solving county’s waste issue

By Kate Harries AWARE News Network January 22 2013

At the exact mid-point of their four-year term, Simcoe county councillors seem to have realized that they have to get serious about waste diversion – or taxpayers will face runaway waste disposal costs.

The occasion for this epiphany was a vote on awarding a contract for the export of half of the county’s garbage, around 20,000 tonnes. A staff report estimated that exporting will double the lifespan of the county’s landfill capacity to 12 or 13 years.  The decision came down to a choice between “Ontario landfill” and “Ontario incinerator.”

A report from solid waste management director Rob McCullough recommended Option 1, “Ontario landfill.” 

Under questioning, McCullough revealed that the incinerator option (Algonquin Power) scored higher on technical points, but the landfill option (Walker Bros in Niagara Falls) scored highest in the end because the price is lower. 

What else is new? Tossing stuff in the ground is cheap.

Thanks to Dump Site 41 Simcoe County learned a few lessons about landfill – they always leak in the end, and they’re not cheap in the long run. 

Adjala Tosorontio Deputy Mayor Mary Small Brett kicked off today’s debate by proposing Option 4, sending the waste to sent to Algonquin Power. “It’s a better footprint,” she said. “We (Adjala Tosorontio) believe in not throwing things into landfill.”

Midland Mayor Gord McKay, a founder of Zero Waste Simcoe, pointed out that 35 per cent of what we send to landfill is organic and should be in the Green Bin, 10 per cent is recyclable and should be in the Blue Box, and 24 per cent is diapers and pet waste, which can be diverted if systems are put in place.

“Nearly 70 per cent doesn’t have to go to landfill,” he said. “All it requires is a little more intestinal fortitude by this house… to get more serious about this discussion.”

McKay noted that soon after they were elected, councillors were presented with alternatives that could seriously drive diversion rates. “We balked,” he said. 

The alternatives which have been shown to increase diversion and were recommended for consideration by the Stantec waste strategy team included user-pay, clear garbage bags, bi-weekly pickup for non-organic waste and.. All were rejected by councillors after they received negative feedback from residents.

And now after having gone through the Site 41 discussion, Simcoe County is preparing to send its waste to some one else’s backyard. McKay said that did not sit well with him.  “I cannot support any of these recommendations,” he said. 

Tiny Mayor Ray Millar, also a ZWS founder, suggested that the choice between landfill and incineration is a red herring. 

“As long as we concentrate on that issue we miss the real problem,” he said. And that’s diversion. 

He said a sunset clause provided by the proposed comtract – which is for two years, with a two-year option to renew – provides time to focus on  meaningful discussion with partners like the Ontario government, Stewardship Ontario and Waste Diversion Ontario, so the county can move towards Zero Waste.

Mayor Harry Hughes of Oro-Medonte, home to the landfill site that takes most of Simcoe’s garbage, noted that a few years ago, at that site, “you would have been looking at a deep hole. Now you’re looking up at a high hill.” There were times when council could have made decisions to increase diversion, he added. “We chose not to.”

Midland Deputy Mayor Stephan Kramp agreed, The waste management strategy offered the tools for addressing the waste gap but “we started to take the tools out of it…. We’re going to have to revisit this and look at it again right from the beginning.”

Springwater Deputy Mayor Dan McLean underscored the theme of the discussion. “We’ve got to get serious about diversion, we’ve got to put more money into diversion.” He proposed that a projected surplus in the waste export budget be put into diversion programs. 

Councillors did some back-of-the-envelope calculations of the extra costs involved in the incineration option. Penetanguishene Deputy Mayor Marion reckoned $177,000, the town’s mayor, Gerry Marshall figured it at $90,000. This is necessitated by the Delphic nature of the county RFP process which deals in points rather than dollar amounts – something Marshall criticizes at every turn.

The vote was approximately two thirds in favour of Small Brett’s amendment – so half the county’s waste is headed for incineration for the next two years. 

Councillors also asked for a staff report on ways to increase diversion, which would include revisiting the alternatives previously voted down. 

“Maybe this time we’ll find the intestinal fortitude to do the job,” Kramp said.