Will Standardized Garbage Containers help with Waste Diversion – a Discussion

 To reduce the amount of food waste that ends up in its landfills, the County of Simcoe is seeking to use standardized garbage containers.

 At a recent community-of-the-whole meeting, Simcoe’s council expressed interest in conducting a standardized garbage container pilot program. The council’s arguments for this is that it would increase waste diversion.

 The county already has a waste management bylaw however many residents choose not to stick to it. According to the bylaw, the limits for garbage containers are identified to a maximum weight of 20 kilograms and a maximum volume of 80 litres.

 Contrary to these limits, many residents use up to 120-litre garbage containers. The 120-litre containers tend to make it difficult to determine whether volume limits are being adhered to. It has been estimated that as many as one third of residents are exceeding the weekly limits.

 To guard against this in the future, the county has argued for a standardized 80-litre disposal container for the community. Accomplishing this would mean increased waste diversion. It’s believed a smaller bin would mean more use of the county’s green bins which are designated for food waste. Currently, only roughly 40 percent of the food that should be in the green bin ends up in the green bin. The other 60 percent is being put into these 120-litre bins which means more is sent to landfills than what is needed.

 The pilot program set to launch will put to the test three scenarios – pilot households that receive the retail type 80-litre containers; pilot households that receive automated 80-litre containers; and pilot households that would receive a 50 percent subsidy sale on 80-litre containers.

 As the county has already expressed interest, it is expected a pilot program could begin sometime in 2018 at a cost of approximately $283,000. That said, county council approval is still required but is expected to be obtained by November’s end.

 The idea behind all this is to get people to look at what they are putting in their garbage. It might be easy to just add it up all together into one bin but that doesn’t work out great for the community environment. Landfills have finite space. To maximize this space, thought needs to be given into what can be used to compost. In the same sense, 80-litre containers should challenge community members to question what they can take out to keep things under limits.

 The facts are that when food does not make it to the landfill, it ends up creating methane as it decomposes. Methane is among the most powerful greenhouse gases in the world and this decomposition can also subsequently create leachate problems as well. When food is diverted from the landfill and inputted into a compost program, those same gases are not created, space is saved in the community’s limited landfills, and it creates a healthier environment for all involved.

 As Simcoe County is set to come to its decision in the weeks to come, this is something that more communities across Ontario need to be looking at. By using standardized garbage bins, this is an easy way to save valuable landfill space and to encourage a more environmentally-friendly waste disposal system.