Changes are being proposed as part of an ambitious District waste diversion plan aimed at increasing recycling rates in Muskoka from 35 to 60 per cent.
The five-year plan would leave residents no choice but to start sorting their waste, rather than sending it all to the landfill. It’s also designed to expand the capacity of the Rosewarne Landfill site in Bracebidge (Muskoka’s only operating landfill) set to run out of room by 2036, at current diversion rates.
“The waste strategy really has a huge environmental positive impact for Muskoka, which, unfortunately, [is]probably out of sight and out of mind,” District commissioner of engineering and public works Fred Jahn told a joint finance committee and engineering and public works committee meeting held in November.
“We’ve talked at great lengths that landfills generate about 20 per cent of the methane gas, one of the bad greenhouse gas contributors in Canada, and the need for diverting organics from landfill is really paramount to avoid those environmental impacts.”
Jahn also told the joint committee that he predicts the cost of waste disposal will rise. “I would submit to you that we are in the cheap garbage days, currently. In 20 years and beyond I think the District and the province will see much, much higher costs for waste disposal. Making the landfill last as long as possible makes good fiscal sense,” he said. “The waste strategy really focuses on organics collection and diversion from the landfill. The good news about the strategy is we know the solution to it. It’s a simple matter of reducing garbage bag limits and diverting organics from the landfill.”
Jahn added that part of the longer-term strategy is for households to eventually get down to one garbage bag per week as well as using clear bags, another tool he said that’s been proven effective in diverting waste.
Landfill tipping fees for non-divertible materials will increase next year by five per cent from $201 per tonne to $211.
In the spring of next year, curbside bag limits as well as transfer station bag limits will go from three bags to two bags per week, following the expansion of organic or green bin services. In the spring of 2023 bag limits are being proposed to further decrease to one bag per week.
All transfer stations and Muskoka’s landfill will be equipped to receive organics, and curbside organic services will be expanded to an estimated 4,400 year-round residences in Huntsville to start, with other areas to follow.
“We know we have 22,000 units right now without curbside organics and to expand all at once would be exceptionally impactful on the budget. And so, we are proposing that we would start with a November (2022) expansion to those Huntsville year-round units,” said director of waste management and environmental services Stephanie Mack, adding that the further expansion of the program would happen in a phased approach.
The plan also proposes that District council pass a mandatory waste diversion bylaw in 2026 after residents are given the curbside tools to separate their waste appropriately.
Other proposed changes include offering organic waste disposal programs at waste depots in Georgian Bay, and the staff to supervise them.
Mack said the District often gets requests, particularly in the spring, for reduced tipping fees to support community clean-ups. “And we are proposing just over $15,000 to support these local initiatives. We would be providing identifiable garbage bags or bag tags each spring working with our area municipalities on litter, to tying it in with Earth Day or the Provincial Day of Action on Litter.”
The large item disposal community event in the Township of Muskoka Lakes will be provided on a fee-for-service basis moving forward, she added.
Other initiatives include a waste site pass system to be implemented by 2023, “allowing us to manage our program more effectively,” said Jahn.
At the moment, District waste facilities track vehicle license plates and do not have the ability to control no-charge garbage limits by property.
Jahn said the five-year strategy is expected to increase solid waste costs anywhere from seven to 10 per cent over the coming years, unless there’s an appetite to roll the program out over a longer period.
“We feel very strongly that the District can make significant progress by supporting this budget over a five-year plan to get to 60 to 70 per cent [recycling]range,” he said.
District council is scheduled to meet on December 20 at 3 p.m.
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Doug Austin says
Maybe I missed it, but what I’m not seeing is Green bins for organic waste from community facilities.
I.E. Legion’s, Church’s, Community Centre’s and the like that can produce quite a spike volume.
I have many time, brought organic’s from those places home to put in my own green bin.
Tami Kegley says
I am glad to see this good news. I have experienced such a program and it works. Using a community provided green bin is a simple matter of sorting.
However, we may have challenges with bears during our warmer months.
Gary Donald says
Terrific news that organics can soon be taken to Muskoka Transfer Stations. I certainly hope our Dwight Station is included since it would reduce our garbage by at least 60%.
Brian Tapley says
A few things to note.
1-Do they actually “recycle” the recycle material? I’ve heard that only two or three types of plastic and the metal actually gets recycled and that the rest does not because there is no market for some of the plastics used in some packaging. I do not know if this is true.
2- If one has one’s own organic handling system of composting for example, something we have had for over 20 years here, then do we get a break of some degree in the taxes that fund the public organic system, one that we have never used and are not likely too as we have always covered our organic recycling costs privately?
3- What do I do with the trash that gets dumped along the roads that cross my property? If I invest the time and effort to pick this stuff up, and it amounts to probably two pick up loads per summer, then why is it that at the transfer station, they still want to charge this to my account. It was never my stuff to begin with and I donate my time and truck to collect the stuff so that the area looks nicer! Maybe just put it along the roadside, more highly visible and hope some government employee has time to pick it up before the animals spread it again?
Other than this, I know many households can get the trash down to a bag a week. Our family can do this for sure but I am saddled with a resort and tourists who, despite being told to please recycle and being provided with the needed containers to make this job simple, well they just don’t do it. I have, for example seen a family of 3 adults and 3 kids create 4 big black garbage bags of trash per day. That is right, per day. If you audit this stuff by tearing the bags open prior to putting them in the garbage dumpster you usually find that everything has been mingled together, cans, beer, wine, bottles, food waste, plastic and paper… one big jumble and the food waste sort of poured over it all makes sorting it at this point a really nice job indeed. Why are people so lazy I wonder. It is simple to do and they are on holiday so they have lots of time but ….. they often do nothing.
I fear lower limits and higher fees might just make the roadside issue worse in 2022 and going forward.
Hans Muntz P.Eng says
Kudos to the District for proposing a 5 year waste diversion plan. But is it enough?
It seems ironic, that after a generation of “reduce, reuse, recycle” we are still at baby steps when it comes to attitudes and reality. Our stuff piles up, and our waste (stuff nobody wants) goes to fill land.
Consider the “rich” Muskoka legacy of disposal over our lifetime – not our parents – we can’t lay this one on them. Roadside littering is the proverbial tip of the iceburg (mountain?). We’ve thrown unwanted stuff on the ice, over the bank, into burn barrels and landfill – where else? We might cringe, but municipal landfilling is really organized landscaping.
So what are the big options, ideas, to achieve 100% waste diversion in Muskoka? What’s the business plan? How do we prove as a community that we can do this. Turn this existential problem into an opportunity. Its time!
How much time – 10 years? I was hoping 5 years. This is a challenge made in Muskoka for Muskoka – with social economic and environmental payback. Not to reduce, but to end wasteful landfilling – here, now and “down the road” literally and figuratively.
As our latest and only operating Muskoka municipal landfill approaches capacity, and dozens of former municipal “dumps” litter the landscape, we will accrue untold ecological and financial liability for the future. Imagine getting a new mega site approved anywhere in central ontario 10 years from now?
It seems high time, and for many reasons, that we act like a community that values its back yard. Lets keep Muskoka on the map for the right reasons – or not be surprised by the consequences!
Michael O'Mara says
All buildings demolished in 2022 must recycle 20% of the material and 10 % more the year after and so on. British Columbia is doing it and so can Ontario.