Come on Durham, use your green bins

Yorkregion.com
April 12, 2019

The Region of Durham has done a little digging around in the garbage of late, all with the intent of completing a comprehensive study to ascertain what residents are throwing into garbage bags.

The results are in and they’re not good -- not good for the environment, not good for Durham Region and at some point, it won’t be good for your pocketbook either.

The bad news is Durham residents are throwing out a lot of stuff that shouldn’t have found its way into garbage bags. Even worse is the fact that about half of the items in garbage bags are recyclables and organics -- stuff that residents know should be finding their way into either a blue bin or a green bin.

The study was carried out from May 28 to Aug. 17 in 2018, with 350 tonnes of waste examined each week -- in total, about 3,583 tonnes of garbage, about three per cent of all garbage collected in Durham in 2018 was checked.

Garbage collected from single-family homes was 29 per cent food waste, 12 per cent was sanitary products and pet waste and eight per cent was soiled paper; that totals 49 per cent.

From multi-residential homes, 28 per cent was food waste, 13 per cent sanitary products and pet waste and 10 per cent was soiled paper; that totals 51 per cent.

Recyclables ending up in the garbage stream is not a big problem as it’s a relatively small amount in the grand scheme of waste in Durham. That’s mostly due to the recycling program that’s been around for more than 30 years. It has become almost second nature for Durham residents to use the blue box and keep things that can be recycled out of the waste stream.

The big problem, however, is the amount of organics that has been thrown into garbage bags as the study has revealed. How significant is it? Well, it’s about 50 per cent of what has ended up in garbage bags and translates into 60,000 tonnes that currently goes to the Durham York Energy Centre for incineration instead of being diverted.

The reality of the situation is this: It is costing everyone in Durham money every time they choose to throw organics in the garbage instead of a green bin. Capturing the 50 per cent of organics in the waste stream would save the region money by avoiding a costly expansion for the incinerator down the road.

The region says time is of the essence to get this unfortunate situation straightened out, as there is neither landfill space or incinerator capacity to absorb all the excess garbage that is created when residents choose to throw organic waste in garbage bags. Currently, the region is sending 10,000 tonnes of waste to a landfill because there isn’t capacity at the incinerator. And, Ontario will run out of landfill space by 2028. With organics removed from the waste stream, however, landfills won’t reach capacity until 2032.

The region says its next big project will involve building an anaerobic digester, which will create gas that can be sold to the grid. However the project could take at least six years to build due to an environmental assessment.

In the interim, residents must be mindful of what they’re tossing in their garbage bags. Let’s hope more residents choose to be part of the solution to the garbage situation and not part of the problem.