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GARBAGE AND RECYCLING MANAGEMENT The Air Quality Council (AQC) has been engaged in a number of public education projects to increase the awareness of air quality issues in the Alberni Valley. During 2004, with the support of the Vancouver Island Health Authority, the council worked to reduce wood smoke by promoting best burning practices, especially with regard to residential wood heating. During 2005, with the support of the BC Ministry of Environment, the focus was on reducing smoke from the illegal practice of backyard garbage burning. Smoke from burning garbage contributes to the burden of heart disease, asthma, cancer, diabetes, and reproductive disorders, to name a few. The poisonous suite of chemicals released when garbage is burned includes various harmful compounds, such as TCDD dioxins, the most lethal human-made poison, next to radioactive waste. Backyard trash burning is now one of the highest contributors to dioxin pollution in North America and poses unnecessary health risks to rural populations across the country. Part of convincing people to stop burning garbage requires educating them that are better ways to deal with it. People have many reasons for choosing to burn their waste. Common excuses include: an unwillingness to take part in filling up the landfill, the cost and difficulty of arranging transport to the landfill,and a perception that because our garbage isn't recycled anyway, burning is somehow a better choice. In order to address some of these concerns and to be of service in promoting best garbage management practices, the AQC has reviewed the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) 1996 Solid Waste Management Plan with a view for improvements. This study was combined with information gathered from a series of interviews and events, listed below, and used to compile a set of recommendations. Due to the proximity and precedent set by the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN), input from that region became a key element in the deliberations of the AQC with respect to the possibilities and the future of solid waste management planning in the ACRD. INFORMATION SOURCES ► Three telephone interviews with Sean McGinn, the past ACRD Public Works Coordinator. ► An interview with Gary Holte, the Superintendent of Public Works in Tofino, where a recycling program has been successfully instituted. ► Telephone conversations with Recycling Council of BC staff managing the Recycling Hotline. ► A tour conducted by Ken Wright of the Church Street Transfer Station in Coombs, a garbage facility that serves the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) from Lantzville to Bowser. ► A visit to the Recycling Centre in Parksville. ► A review of the RDN Solid Waste Management Plan, 2004. ► A review of RDN web pages dedicated to various aspects of solid waste management. ► A review of the RDN Solid Waste Composition Study, 2004. ► A review of web information on the North Shore Recycling Program. ► A review of web information on residential composting. ► Two detailed telephone interviews with Al Stanley, manager of Environmental Services for the RDN. ► A three-hour meeting in Nanaimo with Al Stanley and six members of Port Alberni’s AQC to discuss the myths, pitfalls, and best practices for garbage management. (Notes from the Nanaimo meeting are included at the end of this report.) ACRD SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN, 1996 Although our Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) is ten years old, it appears to be a plan for our future, as many of the strategies put forward at that time have still not been implemented. Under the SWMP guiding principles, a user-pay system with a goal of "maximum practicable waste reduction" should have, within a decade, led to dramatic waste stream recovery and reduction. Instead, the plans and target calculations for waste stream reduction have yielded to ever-burgeoning loads of refuse. In 2005, the budget amount dedicated to recycling for a population of approximately 30,000 was $1000. Garbage that citizens are encouraged to separate for recycling at the landfill ends up with other refuse behind the blade of the landfill’s bulldozer. It is difficult to reconcile this practice with the 23 detailed, proactive, educational strategies included in section 3.2 of the 10-year-old SWMP. Delays and inconsistencies may have been avoided had the original intention for an SWMP Monitoring Advisory Committee been upheld. The committee was charged with advising and regularly reporting on all matters regarding plan implementation and effectiveness. It is unclear how and when the departure from this role took place. The Alberni Valley is now one of the few communities left that has no official recycling programs, that has not been at the table with other communities working to improve solid waste management strategies, and that has not engaged its own educational strategies for reducing, reusing, and recycling waste .This does lead to the question of the possible effectiveness of a new plan resulting from the review of one that, in many respects, was never taken to heart. During the second telephone interview with Sean McGinn, he announced that he would be calling for a full review of our Solid Waste Management Plan. It is the hope of the Air Quality Council that the following recommendations will be considered in the development of a new SWMP for our region. RECOMMENDATIONS ZERO WASTE ► Provide the leadership and public education necessary to develop a societal attitude that actually makes the goal possible. This involves a shift in thinking to one where garbage is seen as resources for the future, and where landfilling and burning garbage are seen as a costly, polluting, and unsustainable waste of resources that transfers environmental liabilities to future generations. ► Pursue and support the application of readily available tools, such as “Extended Producer Responsibility” programs, a recycled content regulation, landfill bans, design for the environment, and composting programs. Virtually all resources can be recovered. ►Promote a resource recovery-based economy that creates and sustains more productive and meaningful jobs. There are many good examples of this in the municipalities, states, counties, corporations, small businesses, and non-government organizations that have committed to Zero Waste and are well on their way to that goal. CURBSIDE RECYCLING AND DROP-OFF DEPOTS ► Develop a certification program for all private sector and non-government municipal solid waste management and recycling facilities. Regulating how everyone manages their operations creates a level playing field, encourages business investment, helps develop disposal alternatives, and discourages counter-productive and illegal practices in, for example, the trade and sale of used goods (e.g., metals, which can be stolen goods). Also, once a licensed facility is in place to manage a particular waste, that material can be banned from the landfill, which benefits both the landfill and the licensed businesses. GARBAGE MANAGEMENT ► Produce a current waste composition analysis to use as a baseline for the development of waste reduction targets. ► Garbage pick-up limits should be kept to a minimum, a proven incentive for reducing household garbage. ► Ban the burning of prohibited materials, as listed in the Open Burn Control Regulation. This should include burning them anywhere outside or inside, in wood stoves, etc. ORGANIC WASTE ► Ban organics from the landfill once the composting facility is in place. Landfilling organic material can account for over 50% of the waste stream, is a huge waste of valuable resources, and is the main source of landfill methane gas production, which should be avoided up front. Before such a ban in Nanaimo, 62% of the city’s waste stream was organic (47% food waste 15% yard waste). Where appropriate, promote household composting education and programs. ► Promote a No-Waste Gardening Program. This reduces landfill waste, reduces the needless burning and dumping of fall leaves, grass, and other debris while promoting ecologically sustainable gardening. ►Develop a comprehensive public education and action plan to minimize waste-related interaction with bears and other animals. PROGRAM FUNDING ► Review the Alberni Valley Landfill fee structure, as the per tonne charge appears to be too low for proper management and is lower than the landfill charges of neighbouring communities. ► Proposed programs and budgets should be based on a user-pay system and presented in per diem figures for consideration. ► Recycling costs should not be met by weight-based recovery. ► Abandon the notion of raising funds for recycling by importing garbage. A key goal of recycling is garbage reduction. ►Ban garbage and hazardous wastes that are generated outside of the ACRD from our landfill. ► Pursue available grant and aid packages to initiate and/or augment funding for necessary programs and new initiatives. Applicable categories include grants for “green” development, greenhouse gas reduction, sustainability, and community health and development. ►Provide some financial support to the Recycling Council of BC. NETWORKING ►Create in-house capacity for staying up to date with the latest improvements in recycling and solid waste management at a local, regional, provincial, national, and global levels. For example, process improvements are required from here to China, when local computer hardware sent out for recycling ends up in a toxic burn pile in China for metal recovery. Solid waste management is a local task with global implications. ILLEGAL DUMPING
► As we renew our vision of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) we are called to a fourth: RETHINK. We need to rethink how much material we really need to consume and discard, what is really disposable, what the real environmental burden of our refuse is, and what the true costs are to manage that burden, now and in the future. ► The best strategies for handling garbage and recyclables should be put in place in a methodical, step-by-step fashion, graduating in levels to an ever more comprehensive and sophisticated program. Start simple and make it work. ► Engage in “upstream” strategies to curtail needless waste being brought into our region in the first place. For example, vast amounts of foam and plastics are used with little regard in the marketing of food and hard goods. The up-front reduction and restriction of such materials is a logical priority for waste stream reduction. ►The main structural elements of any new SWMP should be reflected in regulation, which would offer greater security for the plan over time.
Encouraging best practices in solid waste management discourages destructive practices, such as backyard garbage burning. One of the net results is better air quality. To that end, the AQC has provided the ideas and perspective included in this report. It is our hope that they will be of some assistance to the public, staff, and political leaders of Port Alberni and the ACRD. The AQC is pleased with the recent developments within the ACRD in the hiring of a new Environmental Manager and in the commitment to a review our SWMP. The completion of that review should inaugurate a renewed set of directives for our community that will inspire waste reduction and discourage unacceptable behaviours, such as garbage burning. Respectfully Submitted by the following citizens:
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