Council agrees to send 60% to private site
CENTRAL MANITOULIN—A long-anticipated pilot project aimed at shipping 40 yards of waste to a commercial landfill outside of the municipality in order to divert it from the fast-filling municipal landfill is now underway in Central Manitoulin.
Council passed a motion authorizing the one-year Garbage Haulage Pilot Project to proceed on the estimated costs of tipping set at $800 a week and transportation of $120 a week. The motion was moved by Councillor Alex Baran and Councillor Derek Stephens and passed unanimously by council.
“This is something that previous councils have set aside for, so the money is there,” said Councillor Stephens. Councillor Stephens referenced a recent letter to the editor in The Expositor that castigated council for not instituting a composting program and noted that “we do have a composting program. We sold composters to the public at cost and are now trying to proceed with another round.”
Councillor Taylor noted that the program would divert 40 yards of waste, roughly equivalent to the amount of commercial waste in the community. “I believe that is about 60 percent of the overall waste going into our landfill. It is a pilot and this should tell us what we need to know.
The pilot program would enable the municipality to evaluate the cost-benefits of the diversion,” agreed Councillor Stephens. “It could significantly lengthen the life of the landfill.”
New landfill construction is a major cost for any municipality and it is a process that has proven fraught with challenges and controversy for those communities that have undertaken such projects. When the cost of a new landfill runs to the millions, a yearly cost running to less than $60,000 to ship waste out can appear to be an attractive alternative.
