County moves closer to organics program
By Richard Blanchard

Simcoe county has moved a major closer to implementing a county wide organics program within the next year.

Council's Corporate Services committee gave its unanimous support last Wednesday to implementing an organics program at the beginning of October 2008. At present, Adjala-Tosorontio is the only municipality in the county with an organics pickup program.

Final approval must be given by county council next week.

New Tecumseth mayor Mike McEachern, who is vice chair of the committee, said that he was glad that the county had made a move in this direction. "I think that the important thing is that we have made that commitment to move forward," he said.

But there was a lot of debate about the accompanying proposal to reduce the number of bags of garbage per household to one per week and whether the county should go to a tag system instead.

Other questions were raised about the suitability of the program in a county where so much of the population lives in rural areas.

Oro-Medonte deputy mayor Rob Haugh said that he and many others in his municipality already composted their organics. "I certainly support reducing garbage but what will we get from this expanded program? It appears to me that it maybe just a tax increase for some of us," he said. The program is expected to cost $14.75 per year per household to operate. In addition, $7.77 per household will be charged each year for the first five years to cover the cost of setup ($750,000) to pay for the cost of installing transfer facilities to hold the waste before it is shipped out of the county for processing, $3,311,000 for the cost of providing residents with a kitchen bin and curbside cart and $667,000 for promotion and education materials.

The total cost for the setup of the program is estimated to be $4,728,000. The annual operating cost is estimated at $2,704,829.

Adjala-Tosorontio deputy mayor Doug Little, who chairs the Corporate Services committed, responded that "every resident pays for landfills. I'm certain that nobody is in favour of building more unless absolutely necessary."

Several county councillors from areas with a large number of cottagers said that they felt that the one bag per week limit which would come into force with composting was unfair to seasonal residents.

Innisfil deputy mayor Gord Wauchope said that he felt that it was unfair to limit cottagers to one bag per limit when many of them didn't use the waste system on a weekly basis during most of the year. "We are saying no to them and I think that we're going to end up with a fight with them if we insist on a one bag per week limit. An organics program like this is great, but I know Innisfil is going to have a difficult time with the cottage owners when they're only allowed to put out one bag per week," he said.

Other councillors said that there was going to be even more trash end up in the county's forests and roadways if a one bag per week limit was instituted.

Tiny township mayor George Lawrence said that his municipality was already having a problem with illegal waste with a two bag per week limit.

"I have a real concern that it will get worse, We had a lot of backlash when our township went to the two bag limit. We've witnessed our staff going around in trucks and picking up garbage that is thrown in the forest," he said.

Some councillors suggested that residents be given 52 tags per year and allowed to use multiple bags if tags were applied to the bags.

Deputy mayor Doug Little said that the move to limit bags was intentional in order to make residents more aware of the amount of waste that they generate. "We've got to cut down on the use of landfills. There's no sense to recycling and other waste reduction programs unless we cut down on the amount of waste going out," he said.

Mayor Tom Walsh said that his township, which has been using the organics program for the past five year, has seen dramatic decreases in the waste that it sends to the township. "But it's a matter of education. For example, we had one church who had difficulty getting by with one bag per week but they switched to recyclable paper plates and other materials and now they are able to get by with one bag," he said.

Walsh urged county council members to get their residents involved in the education process. "Our staff do a good job but having residents to help in the education process is even better."

County warden Tony Guergis added that education is critical ensuring the program is a success. "I'd like to see if staff can spend some money up front, on a communication and education program, telling people what they'll have to deal with right up front, to eliminate any problems. We need to make sure we get that communication."

Walsh supported Little in opposing the sale of extra tags. "I think that is offensive. Honestly, we don't have a lot of waste thrown on the road anymore," he said.

The waste would be transported to AIM Waste Management in Hamilton to be processed at the beginning of the program. Staff did not rule out the use of a organics processing plant in the county.