Material Recovery Facility (MRF)
Our MRF (material recycling facility) was one of the first in Ontario and something we can all be very proud of. With a team of dedicated staff and new automated sorting equipment, we are doing out part to divert recyclable products from our waste stream. I advocated for our first e-waste diversion program and found our first market for these products. In 2009, we diverted 178 tonnes of e-waste from our landfills (up 77 tonnes over 2008). We recently began participation in the new Ontario Electronic Stewardship Program, and reduced our expense of e-waste disposal from 600.00 per tonne to a revenue of 165.00 per tonne.
My father personally delivered the first Bluebox to each and every homeowner in Campbellford before recycling first started in Northumberland County. I am proud of what he achieved, and I embrace what he started over 20 years ago.
I believe the next evolution for waste in Northumberland is to ban disposable plastic shopping bags. These nasty little items can make their way to our landfill sites and never go away. They also clog sorting machines at the MRF. Northumberland County has diverted many of them from our landfill sites by asking residents to sort them seperately from their waste.
Hazardous Household Waste (HHW)
Hazardous Waste Collection at Seymour Landfill Site
The HHW (hazardous household waste) program is also something we all can truely be proud of. Diverting potentially dangerous and poisonous products from our landfill sites is just the right thing to do. In 2009, 273 tonnes of HHW was diverted from our landfill sites (up 16 tonnes over 2008) We recently completed an agreement with Stewardship Ontario to pay our operational costs to operate our HHW Depots, and the post-collection management and disposal contract which will save Northumberland County property taxpayers 133,000.00 annually. It is also noteworthy, that all HHW and e-waste can be disposed of free at the HHW Depots, and as a result of their success, the Cobourg and Bewdley depots will be open for a total of four more days (2 per depot) in 2010 to accomodate increased usage of these two locations.
Hector Macmillan handing over a jar of toxic waste
Landfill Sites
Probably the most valuable assets in Northumberland County are our landfill sites. I sat on the Brighton Landfill Liason Committee for three years along with Brighton municipal staff, County staff, and devoted community members concerned with landfill, leachate, and aquifer monitoring. Brighton’s municipal watersource is not far from the County landfill site, and it is imperative the County protect the environs surrounding our landfill sites.
I lobbied and advocated for the new safer, and user-friendly public dropoff stations for both the Brighton and Seymour landfill sites. The Brighton landfill site has undergone a major expansion with a new state-of-the-art lined cell. The old original cell will be moved into the new cell, and then it will also be lined. Inovative technology such as landfill mining has been tested at the Brighton site. Once an approved use is found for the fine product left after mining, this may be a viable alternative until approved and affordable technolgy is available for Northumberland to participate in an energy from waste initiative. This year we just completed negotiating a new curbside collection of waste and recyclables contract that will save property taxpayers approximately 825,200.00 annually. We continue to investigate and develop waste diversion opportunities, and are currently looking at asphalt shingles, construction and demolition wood waste recycling in an effort to maximize diversion rates.
I am also proud to participate in the annual Mayor’s Challenge “Litter Clean-up Week” Again in 2010, more than 2600 volunteers cleaned up over 26,400 kg of roadside litter in Northumberland County. Trent Hills volunteers came in as first runner-up in the Northumberland County “Hardest Working Volunteers” category with an average of 86 kgs picked up per volunteer. Way to go Trent Hills !! Waste diversion and alternative technologies must continue to improve as we are nearing the end of lifecycle for the Seymour landfill site, and it will become a mere transfer station. It is also noteworthy that tires can now be dropped off for free at our sites.