At their July 15 meeting, District Councillors were informed that the municipality is officially launching the creation of its Solid Waste Master Plan, which will guide how Muskoka manages its solid waste over the next 30 years.
Dillon Consulting Limited has been awarded the contract. The consultant will work with District staff and other stakeholders and gather community input to develop a fully costed plan that, if approved by the council, will guide decision-making when it comes to Muskoka’s waste processing and disposal.
Rosewarne in Bracebridge is Muskoka’s only landfill. In 2021, it was estimated that unless some serious waste diversion occurs (e.g., recycling and disposal of organics through the green bin service), Muskoka could run out of landfill space by 2036.
“We will look at all the disposal options. You might have seen recently that the County of Simcoe is sending material to Brampton for incineration and creating energy from waste,” noted James Steele, District Commissioner of Engineering and Public Works, in late June during a tour of the Mountview Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Steele said limited landfill space is not just a problem facing Muskoka but the entire province. Ontario only has about 10 years of capacity left. “So I think we as a province need to really look at how do we best manage waste.” Steele questioned whether placing solid waste in landfills is really the best way forward. He said the creation of the District Solid Waste Master Plan will look at various options. “We’ll look at, you know, what are the scenarios, what type of disposal are we interested in because, certainly, the community also has to be supportive.”
If incineration were to be contemplated, Muskoka would likely have to partner with adjoining area municipalities because the creation of such a facility here would be small by industry standards and financially prohibitive.
All options available to Muskoka will be explored as part of the process, said Steele.
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The Real Person!
The Real Person!
Initiatives to expand compost collection need improvement.
I.E. Collecting from institutions and community groups, church’s, Legion, Fall Fair ….
I have participated in events at many of these locations who tell me all food has to go in the garbage as it is not collected from them.
OK, maybe these places have major peaks and lulls for producing compost waste.
* Have a number they can call or web page or ?? to arrange pick up in 1 to 2 days as most these places can’t store it.
Just an idea… But thanks for trying.
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
How much landfill garbage is from fast food outlets?
Many items can’t be recycled because of material and coatings used in construction.
How about the fast food outlets being pressured into developing items that can be recycled?
Why is it always the taxpayer footing the bill!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
I hope that there are solutions for construction waste and items like the old sidewalks in front of the library being hauled away somewhere hopefully for some reuse or recycling. We might need to find other materials and building standards for new building construction and road and sidewalks that also adapt better to heavy precipitation events and high temperatures.
Also I wonder how dirty, used paper or “‘recyclable” plates and cups with plastic coatings etc from fast food outlets could possibly be candidates for recycling. These seem destined to be regular trash.