The Town of South Bruce Peninsula is looking at options for the future of its landfill, which could include trucking away residential waste.
Acting Director of Public Works Brianna Collins told council, that while the town is doing a good job of compacting waste to maximize the space left in the landfill, it has about 6.5 years of use left.
Collins says in 2019, GM Blueplan did a study looking at options for the future of waste management. She says incineration is extremely expensive.
Council previously approved investigating the possibility of using the old Albemarle landfill which was closed in 2000. About 10 hectares was approved, but the town only has an operation plan for 1.8 hectares. Staff say a feasibility assessment was done this year, and discussions with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks indicate using the remaining 8.5 hectares is not feasible. Staff note the cost would be high.
Staff suggest not using Albemarle at this point, but keeping it in mind in case it one day becomes more affordable to have an engineered site.
Collins says staff are recommending creating a transfer station at the current landfill site, and hauling waste away. This would entail residents dropping things off at the site, but it wouldn’t be used as a landfill, just a place to transfer and ship garbage away.
Deputy Mayor Jay Kirkland says it should be looked at in two parts; one being the waste reduction and the other being a discussion about expansion.
Collins says 85 per cent of waste is residential and 20 per cent of waste is curbside waste, noting, “If we’re hauling away, it’s really important to encourage reduction in waste.”
Some of the options discussed by staff and council to reduce waste included bi-weekly pickup instead of every week, composting, more waste diversion and recycling, bag tags, clear bags and increased education about waste.
Collins said recycling is done ‘a little less’ in South Bruce Peninsula than other comparable communities.
During discussion, Kirkland noted he would like to see curbside waste trucking start immediately.
Councillor Caleb Hull agreed with the idea of exporting curbside garbage, and said “The aggressive stance that we need to take towards diverting waste to me, shows the merit in a an environmental sustainability committee, especially when we talk about human behaviour that we have to curb, and having the public onside, volunteers onside to help make those changes would surely help.”
But Hull is not in favour of a full bag tag program or changing pickup to every other week. He said, “I think of people who live here full-time and young families that have dirty diapers stewing away and stuff like that,” he added a bag tag system may not be as accessible in terms of cost and location for some people, and said, “We have some social responsibility about making sure that option is there, and keeping the cost of living down.”
Hull also advocated for more recycling bins through town.
Councillor Kathy Durst noted she’s heard of some municipalities switching to recycling and compost pickup every week and garbage every two weeks to get people to sort their waste more carefully and recycle more. She also suggested looking at getting more small composters into homes.
The recommendation council approved was to receive the report, and allow public works to look into trucking curbside waste away.