Prior to 2015, Greater Napanee had a sweetheart deal with Canadian Waste under which we paid no tipping fees. Starting in 2015, we begin paying a rate for disposal of $60.00/tonne (+ CPI). In 2013, residents disposed of 5,053 tonnes of waste, so this will add over $300,000 to our budget, increasing yearly. Richmond landfill is closed and waste is now trucked in diesel trucks miles down Highway 401 to be dumped in someone else’s backyard. And we pay the trucking too.
We don’t want other people’s waste, but is it fair to expect other municipalities to accept our waste? Not in my back yard (NIMBY) really means dump it in someone else’s back yard (DISBY).
Like many municipalities, Napanee uses a bag tag system. In principle, a user-pay system promotes efficient use of services. However, there have been problems here and elsewhere.
Our bag tag rate increased from $1.50 to $2.00 in May, 2015.
The 2015 budget presented by staff on April 2 claimed at p. 104 that this would raise $119,600 more money.
Really? Economics 101 teaches that when you increase the price for a commodity you lower demand for it. Will the price increase lead residents to buy larger garbage bags, landlords to make increasing use of dumpsters or, worse, contribute to illegal dumping, which is already a major problem?
Recently, residents are reporting theft of bag tags left on their garbage bags. Will this be a continuing problem?
Will the bag tag increase the rate of diversion to recycling?
Gananoque still has a $1.50 bag tag. Others charge $3.00.
We will check back in 2017 and see how much more was really raised in 2016.
Stay tuned…
We need someone to develop some content on other issues relating to waste management.
We have a leaky landfill, now closed, which sits on fractured limestone. But, that’s the only kind of limestone there is. Clarington and Brampton have high temperature incinerators (a process used almost everywhere in Europe) which is claimed by some to be the best environmental solution. But, there seems to be a philosophical problem with championing anything with a smoke stack.
Much of the problem is with the provincial Ministry of the Environment which has a bad case of arthritis.
But, this is an issue that no one wants to touch; so, we just keep sending the diesel trucks rumbling along 401 spewing out diesel fumes and carbon dioxide, using up our non-renewable natural resources just to carry our garbage to someone else’s back yard. Is there any sense in this?
Surely, that will provoke some comment. Let’s hear some other opinions! Make Comments Here.
