No matter how noble the gesture, no municipality wants to risk liability of its staff in handling whatever unknown and dangerous objects might be in public recycling bins.
That was the message behind a matter for consideration at the recent Tiny Township committee of the whole meeting, regarding a province-wide proposal for municipal partnerships from the Canadian Beverage Container Recycling Association.
The letter to Tiny council was requesting an opportunity for the not-for profit organization to offer recycling bins in public facilities, also subsidizing collection costs for beverage containers. The organization’s mandate is to recover 80 per cent of beverage containers sold in Ontario by 2030.
Mayor Dave Evans addressed the proposal by noting that Tiny has very few public buildings, a comment that had some on council counting their fingers for the minimal number.
“If we were a different municipality, it might be worth it if we had hockey arenas and things like that,” said Evans. “I’m just wondering if it’s worth the effort.”
Coun. Steffen Walma, a returning council member from previous terms, remembered when the issue was previously addressed. He spoke to the reasons why recycling wasn’t as straightforward in municipalities.
“If you were to look at the town of Midland they have these beautiful trash receptacles on the main street that have recycling, waste, cardboards," said Walma. "But when you see everything get picked up, it all gets thrown into the same truck.
“I realize through conversations with (public works director Tim Leitch) about our own parks, that there’s liability concerns over separating recyclables and stuff like that. At the end of the day, it’s all a show," said Walma.
“So anything that we can do to improve our recycling from a corporate standpoint, I’m 100 per cent in for,” Walma stated.
Leitch confirmed Walma’s remark on the unknowns within public recycling containers.
“Sharps, dog waste bags,” said Leitch, “the county does accept a certain amount of percentage of recycling, but we don’t know if it’s going to be 50 per cent, 75 per cent, or 5 per cent – and we will not expose our staff to the risk, especially sharps and things like that that are prevalent in our garbage containers.
“Just so the public knows, within our main facilities, we do a very good job of recycling. We separate it, and the county does a great job of picking it up,” he added.
Leitch pointed out that the township uses large containers for waste collection, while making a quip about the CBCRA’s proposed partnership bins which were much smaller.
“The containers they have would not last outside. One windstorm and we’ll be picking them up in Midland,” he said to laughs from those in council chambers.
In support of recycling, Evans shared that he would like to see a reduction in plastic recyclables.
“But if we don’t have the facilities in place to process it, the processing that’s needed to differentiate it,” said Evans, “I don’t want to start getting people’s hopes up and then realizing that it does all end up in the same bin.
“Obviously that’s a big concern at the Simcoe level because our dump is full in three years. So we’ve got a lot of big problems coming up with waste disposal in our term,” Evans cautioned.
On the Ontario Waste Management Association website a running clock displays the approximate time left before the province’s landfills are at capacity, with the number sitting at 11.5 years as of publication.
As Leitch had shared that he held interest in the program’s potential and would like to explore the matter further, council directed staff to investigate and proceed if found viable.
The CBCRA correspondence and associated information on the Recycle Everywhere program can be found in the agenda page located on the Tiny Township website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on Tiny township’s YouTube channel.
