Council’s trash talk sends recommendation to the curb

A recommendation that would have North Bay residents partially paying for waste removal will be revised.

The recommendation suggested residents would have two ‘free’ bags of garbage collected, while each additional bag would cost two dollars. The recommendation was intended to help North Bay achieve long term efficiencies in waste management and would have started May first.

Monday night, the Engineering and Works Committee unanimously agreed the recommendation needs more work after several councillors raised various questions.

The committee will look at how to reduce illegal dumping and how to include waste from commercial, industrial, and multi-residence building. Currently, 6.8 per cent of the city’s waste comes from multi-residence buildings, while 61 per cent comes from the commercial sector.

The committee will also look at building a new recycling plant which would allow more materials to be recycled.

“I do not expect our citizens to put out less if we are not offering to take more,” Chair of the Engineering and Works Committee Judy Koziol said.

A new recycling plant could be built as early as July of 2008, and Koziol says once the plant’s construction timeline is known, it would be safe to start the two dollar a bag program.

North Bay currently has an 80 per cent recycling participation rate, and a waste diversion rate of 35 per cent. Koziol explained North Bay would like to meet the 60 per cent diversion rate that the province may look at, to help prolong the life of the Merrick Landfill.

“There is going to be extremely high costs to build another landfill, never mind the environmental hoops you have to go through,” Koziol said.

Although the recommendation hasn’t passed, Peggy Walsh-Craig, Treasurer of the Nipissing Environmental Watch is happy it is still on the table. Prior to Monday night’s meeting Walsh sent a letter to Mayor Fedeli and council explaining her groups support for the recommendation.

“Whatever it takes to get the residents of North Bay to reduce the amount of waste they put to the curb is a good thing,” Walsh-Craig said.

She explained Nipissing Environmental Watch have been trying to get council to adopt a waste user fee for 15 years because it is an incentive to reduce garbage.

“For those who have never put out a blue box, the day of reckoning is coming.”