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Oxford County Council Talks Waste Diversion

Thursday, 23 March 2023 06:19

By Robert Van Ryswyck

Oxford County Council looked over the latest waste management report during last night's meeting.

OXFORD COUNTY- Oxford County Council is unsatisfied with its progress towards zero waste. 

At last night's meeting, several members expressed frustration along with new ideas to divert waste from going to the landfill. 

Councillor Bernia Wheaton suggested a green bin program be added to reduce organic waste. She referenced Waterloo Region's tactic of reducing regular garbage pick-up frequency to motivate residents to sort more effectively. 

Councillor Brian Petrie advocates for a "one bag" system where the sorting would not be done by the public.

"To get the most diversion possible you have to have it done at a centralized location where those controls can be put into place to make sure it's not going in the landfill."

Councillor Deb Gilvesy asked about the possibility of incinerating waste but was told the technology was not yet reliable or affordable.

Petrie expressed frustration with the last council and blamed it for letting financial concerns overrule the zero waste goal.

Warden Marcus Ryan agreed that the last council is partly to blame despite sitting on it himself. He says council needs to be open to new ideas to divert waste.

"Oxford County as a whole did a lot of political work for a decade to stop a private landfill from happening in our community and one of the reasons we did that is as a community was to say, it's not a sustainable future to bury our waste in a hole in the ground."

The landfill is projected to last another 28 to 33 years due to waste diversion which Oxford County ranks in the top 10 municipalities in the province for. According to the latest waste management report, Oxford County diverted about 45 percent of residential, industrial, commercial and institutional waste from the landfill last year.
 

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