Selwyn Township is once again looking at options to reduce their Greenhouse Gas Emissions and increase their sustainability.
At Tuesday afternoon’s council meeting, staff presented a report outlining the 2022 waste audit of the Smith Landfill and possible next steps moving forward into 2024 and 2025.
According to a report to council by Lily Marrow sustainability coordinator, in the fall of 2022, the Smith landfill, in partnership with Fleming College underwent a waste audit to understand the composition of waste being disposed of at the site.
The report showed that results of the audit showed that 45 per cent of the audited material was classified as divertible waste.
Her report stated that a total of 898 kg of waste was audited from 25 participating vehicles. The waste was then sorted into categories to identify the composition of materials.
Of the 45 per cent of divertible materials audited, 13 per cent was demolition waste, 11 per cent was carpeting, 10 per cent was from recyclable materials, seven per cent was from textiles, three per cent was from household hazardous waste, and just two per cent was from food waste.
From the audit of the Smith Landfill, staff have created an Implementation Plan that outlines actions to address and improve diversion efforts.
Morrow told council, “Many of those action items are focusing on increasing waste educational and awareness around waste diversion which we do intend to do through a waste marketing campaign next year. Other action items include exploring the addition of new diversion programs at the landfills such as looking at opening a reuse center.”
Staff will be bringing back a report in 2024 to look at the reuse center in more detail and flesh out those ideas such as cost and site plans before it is implemented in 2025.
It was also mentioned at council that each of the surrounding townships (North Kawartha, Douro-Dummer, and Trent Lakes) each utilize a reuse centre at their landfills.
Some other action items staff will be implementing:
• Promote circular economy options to local businesses, including TerraCycle Zero Waste Boxes
• Increase education/awareness of C&D diversion
• Increase education/awareness of bulky items diversion and reuse options
• Trial return of the bottle return program at the landfill with proceeds going to charity
• Explore partnership and funding opportunities for a carpet diversion
• Increase education/awareness of diversion options for carpeting and textiles
• Continue to promote a circular economy through collaborations with local partners
• Explore options for a bulky/hard plastics diversion
Once the Implementation Plan has been completed, township staff will look at repeating the waste audit at the Smith Landfill to track progress on waste diversion efforts.
