Media Clipping – October 2, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald

Clearly, we could be recycling more

HRM homeowners may have to switch to clear garbage bags

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter

Your dirty little secrets might not be safe anymore.

Halifax homeowners might have to start using clear plastic garbage bags to encourage more recycling and composting.

Forcing people to reveal their junk would likely increase the rate of diversion at city dumps, says a staff report written for a city hall committee meeting Thursday afternoon.

"This is not going to happen overnight," Jim Bauld, manager of solid waste resources, said Thursday in an interview after the meeting.

But it is being considered as a strategy to help Halifax achieve a higher diversion rate — the percentage of waste diverted from the landfill to recycling and composting.

A report by Genuine Progress Index (GPI) Atlantic in 2004 found that Halifax Regional Municipality had the highest waste diversion rate of any municipality in Canada.

But although council set a diversion rate target of 60 per cent back in 1996, the municipality has hit a plateau for the last two years at 56 per cent.

Recently, a spot audit of garbage bags at the city's Otter Lake landfill revealed that 40 per cent of the material should have gone into a blue bag or green bin.

The clear-bag idea comes from a round-table held in November 2005 with members of regional council, Clean Nova Scotia, the Resource Recovery Fund Board, provincial Environment Department and industry representatives.

"At that meeting there was a menu of options that could enhance diversion in the future," Mr. Bauld said.

Other ideas include reduced bag limits — from 10 bags to a smaller number like three — and bag tags, which could be purchased for a fee ($1 to $3) and tied to each additional bag if homeowners went over the reduced limit.

"The purpose here is to provide a direct economic incentive for residents at home to recycle and compost," Mr. Bauld said.

Before any of those ideas are implemented, staff will look at the financial implications and diversion enhancement perspectives and then present their findings to the solid waste advisory committee. After that, a report would go before regional council for discussion and a pilot program could follow.

The idea isn't new, Mr. Bauld said, pointing to a few municipalities in the province that are already using clear bags with success.

Residents of West Hants initially found it hard to get used to clear bags when they were introduced last year, said Shirley Pineo, a councillor and chairwoman of that municipality's environment committee.

"In the beginning, we had some opposition," Ms. Pineo said Thursday in an interview.

"There were some issues of privacy," she said of parents concerned about their baby's diapers or older adults with medical issues worried about the "hygienic items" in their garbage bags.

To deal with those concerns, the municipality allows one small opaque bag inside each clear garbage bag and also provides a free curbside garbage can to conceal the contents of the clear bag inside.

"The only person who would see it is the garbage guy, and I don't think he really cares."

To handle another issue about cost, the municipality bought thousands of clear bags and then arranged a "bag swap" so that homeowners could bring in black garbage bags and switch over with ease.

"We implemented this over several months to give people time to get used to it," she said.

A councillor for Halifax says she's already using clear bags.

"I've been doing that forever," Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) said Thursday.

But as a member of the city's solid waste advisory committee and a regional councillor for several years, Ms. Sloane acknowledges that she's probably ahead of the curve when it comes to diverting waste from the landfill.

But she said her constituents would likely follow suit.

"I think most people would embrace it," she said, noting it's not that much different from using green or black garbage bags.

For a reminder on what to place in your blue and green bags and your green cart, click on www.halifax.ca/wrms

( apugsley@herald.ca )