The following article appeared in the November 14 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
The city may have to take another look at its decision to switch to roadside garbage containers next fall.
An appeal decision by the province’s Environmental Review Tribunal regarding a related composting situation in Ottawa appears to have opened the door for Guelph to continue using garbage bags for its curbside waste.
Restrictions placed on Guelph’s new composting plant by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment were the main reason for switching to roadside waste bins over garbage bags at the facility. Those restrictions could now be lifted.
“I assume we’ll have to revisit our decision. That makes sense,” Ward 1 councillor Bob Bell said.
“The trend across North America is certainly toward bins. But I like the idea that we will be able to revisit our decision without restrictions.”
Janet Laird, the city’s executive director of planning and building, engineering and environment, sent an email to councillors last week outlining the Ottawa ruling.
She said staff will spend the next two weeks figuring out what the ruling means to Guelph and present a report to council at its Nov. 28 meeting.
Ward 2 councillor Ian Findlay, who posted Laird’s email on his personal blog, said the city may stick with the move to bins, but further review and information would be needed.
“It certainly throws open all the different options. We may go with the short-term solutions and we may go with the long-term solutions,” Findlay said.
The city was going to supply the roadside carts to residents at an initial cost of $5.2 million. But the city also said that carts would lead to an operating cost saving of roughly $430,000 a year.
Trucks would have to be purchased no matter which option is used.
“We’ll get critics no matter what we decide to do on this one,” Findlay said. “It’s not just about dollars. It’s about the ease of the system, transition, education and all that, plus the environmental issues.
“Everyone’s got an opinion when it comes to garbage.”
Ward 5 councillor Leanne Piper, who chairs the city’s community development and environmental services committee that recommended bag-free waste collection, said the Ottawa decision means Guelph has to re-evaluate its previous decision.
“Whenever new regulations, information and options are available, council has an obligation to review them and re-examine its position,” Piper said.
The financial impact is only part of the decision, she said.
“There’s the convenience factor that has to be factored into the decision as well,” Piper said.
“When your decision is bins, bins or bins: what colour?’ you make one decision. But if it’s bins, or biodegradable bags or a combo system, it opens up a range of discussion we haven’t had yet.”
In Ottawa, a private waste management company named Orgaworld appealed the conditions of its Environment Ministry certificates of approval for operating their composting facility. Those conditions included restrictions on plastic bags, diapers and animal waste.
The Environmental Review Tribunal, which conducts the appeals, sided with Orgaworld.
Guelph’s own certificates of approval were very similar to the Ottawa one, Laird said in her email. She also said the Ministry of the Environment has told Guelph its certificates of approval would be amended should Orgaworld win its appeal.
“We are reviewing the (Environmental Review Tribunal) decision and will bring a report to the Nov. 28 council meeting that will inform council how this decision potentially impacts our certificates of approval for our organic waste processing facility, our current waste programs, and the implementation of automated cart collection scheduled to begin (in the) fall (of) 2012,” Laird’s email said.
“Assuming the (Ministry of the Environment) does, in fact, amend our (certificates of approval) accordingly, and we do need confirmation of that, then the decision to convert to a cart-based system will rest with city council, not (be) mandated by the (Environment Ministry).”