By Amanda Quinn
Margarine containers, Styrofoam and plastic bags will continue to be shipped off to local landfills, as city council has backtracked on a promise to restore plastics recycling.
On May 31, 2004, the city stopped accepting plastics labeled with recycling codes #3 to #7 in blue boxes, claiming there were no markets to sell them to.
Bay Ward Coun. Alex Cullen raised a motion during recent budget talks to have the plastics reinstated in the collection program.
Council voted 18-2 against it, a decision that Cullen calls “shocking.”
“The mayor made a promise to residents last summer to restore plastics recycling,” he says. “The decision is surprising and very disappointing.”
Cullen says council is more concerned with saving money than focusing on what is best for the community — which he says has developed a “habit of recycling.”
“There was too much attention on the final tax increase rather than on the needs of the community. Plastics recycling is important to all residents.”
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes says her decision to vote against the motion was not about money, but because of a report coming out in April about the city’s waste.
Solid Waste Program: Long-Term Strategies will address all issues including plastics recycling.
“It will look at funding and city waste as a whole,” she says. “I think we need to look at everything at once and make decisions from there.”
Anne-Marie Fowler, manager of solid waste services, says it costs the city upwards of $1 million to process and market the plastics, and only $240,000 to send them to landfills.
She adds there is no stable market for the type of plastics removed from the recycling program.
“We’ve been there and done that,” she says. “The markets completely fell apart on us. Some went bankrupt, some just closed down and we were stuck with piles of plastics. I’m in no hurry to jump back in.”
Bill Renkema of Haycore Canada, a recycling brokerage company in Brockville, disagrees.
He says there are plenty of markets for the plastics.
“Well, I’ve got a huge building out in Prescott full of those materials that are going out. If you want to know the truth, to me this is a dead issue. The city has made its decision.”
Centretown business owner Elias Abboud of Brothers Restaurant on Gladstone Ave. says the city’s decision is “frustrating.”
He says even though his business is small, he still has enough material to fill his recycling boxes.
He calls the city’s decision not to reinstate plastics recycling “crap.”
“The city doesn’t care about anything other than dollars and cents,” Abboud says.
“We have to start looking at what’s going to happen to our landfills, but my complaints will only fall on deaf ears.”
Many residents are outraged with the decision, says Angela Rickman of the environmental group Sierra Club of Canada. She says the city is doing the bare minimum to meet provincial recycling requirements.
“Most people I’ve spoken to were sure that the program would be reinstated this year,” she says.
“For the city to strike it down just wasn’t on people’s radar screens.”
Rickman says the city has it all wrong when it comes to available markets.
“The city is not telling the truth. There are several municipalities who have contracts with Haycore. I don’t understand what the city is talking about.”