A pilot plastic recycling program will see grocery and retail bags, newspaper bags, dry cleaning bags, food, produce, milk bags and more diverted from the landfill.

Hub Staff

A recommendation to introduce a new film plastic recycling program was presented May 27 at the Saugeen Shores Committee of Whole meeting.

Presented by Director of Infrastructure and Development, Amanda Froese said the service will be run by Grey-Bruce Trash Taxi who currently drives a similar operation with the town of Brockton. The company will supply six-yard sized bins with a front opening that can be locked to discourage inappropriate trash contaminating the bins.

Froese suggested a pilot venture with collection bins at both the Southampton Landfill site and the Port Elgin Cardboard Recycling Depot. Items included in this new system are grocery and retail bags, newspaper bags, dry cleaning bags, food, produce and milk bags. As well, many product packaging materials can be collected such as salt bags, toilet paper wrap, diaper and feminine hygiene outer bags, soil and mulch bags and plastic bottle case over-wrap.

The cost of the one-year pilot program is estimated at $3,600 and is based on two bins emptied monthly at $150 per pickup. Bins collected at locations in Bruce County that offer this program have resulted in 290 to 300 kilograms per bin, per pickup. Based on these statistics, Froese projected a diversion of approximately seven tonnes of waste from going into the landfill over a one year period, thus extending the life of the landfill.

She also pointed out that the program is resident regulated and for it to succeed, guidelines will need to be clearly communicated to the community.

Councillor Cheryl Grace expressed her excitement towards the project and pointed out some of the cost savings that couldn’t be accounted for in the report.

“The difficult-to-quantify costs," explained Grace, “the amount of time that our employees spend collecting plastic bags that are blowing around the landfill and that doesn’t even include the cost to our community where we see these kinds of plastics polluting our ditches and other pieces of our environment," she said.

"I think it’s a great project and I hope our community can get behind it," Grace concluded.

Councillor Kristan Shrider thanked the Director for her work on the film plastics project. "It’s a small amount of money in order to increase our lifecycle of the landfill site,” Shrider stated. “I will definitely be supporting it as well,” she said.

In the end, the recommendation was carried with a unanimous vote.