In a long overdue exercise, the city is about to start thinking more seriously about its trash.
It’s high time.
Consultants hired to help steer the process say the top two priorities in Thunder? Bay are likely expanded plastics collection and some form of organic waste curb-side pick up.
The latter holds particular appeal, and is likely the only way the city will hit a diversion rate of 60 per cent, nearly double the total residents currently keep out of city landfills.
Organic waste makes up about 45 per cent of all garbage, a significant amount.
It’s nature’s true recyclable material, and it has no business being dumped in a landfill with a short 23-year future.
The city either spends now on a new processing facility, which could last decades or more, or taxpayers will be forced to pay later, when either a new landfill or expansion or replacement of the existing John Street Landfill is needed in two decades or so.
Successful organic waste programs are operating in cities across the country. Yes, they take time getting used to.?But they work.
It’s also high time the city demanded, through bylaws, that businesses recycle. While some do it voluntarily, most consider it too expensive and not worth the return. That’s not the way to think in 2013.
