Managing our Local Waste - Manitoulin Garbage

One thing we humans are consistent with is producing garbage. For many years we've been increasing the amount of waste we generate on this planet. Canada ranks as #1 when compared to other countries with the amount of waste we produce per capita - not a nice category in which to lead the world.

"Estimated waste per capita of the leading waste producing countries worldwide as of 2019 (metric tons) Source: Statistica

Clearly we can do better.

Overall, the situation improves if we produce less waste. We need to through out less and rely on our landfills less.

Here are a few tips on how to reduce your waste (source):

1. Buy what you need, eat what you buy, compost the rest: Studies show Canadians waste about $1100/person in food every year.
2. Extend the life of clothing: gift to thrift stores, and shop there too!
3. Repair and Refurbish: fix older items rather than replacing with something new.
4. Access over ownership, and the sharing economy: lend things to friends and neighbours and use what's available in your community, like with libraries.
5. Reuse coffee mugs and water bottles: every year Canadians 5 billion disposable ones
6. Purchase for the environment: consider the environment when making every purchase - look for repairable items, greener packaging, and environmentally sourced products.

Waste on Manitoulin

Of the municipalities on the island, three currently use landfills to dump their waste, while the others pay Green For Life (GFL) to ship their waste to the Dodge Landfill in Espanola.

• Hauling Garbage & Recycling: When you are paying another company to haul away your waste, it creates a constant annual expense. Some island communities are paying as much as $300,000/year for this service, with as much as $2 million being paid collectively. The shipping contains recycling and garbage, and therefore control of the waste and its processing/recycling is out of our control. Hauling garbage produces a lot of GHGs as well with every litre of fuel creating about 2.4 kg of CO2. Hauling garbage along our roads and across bridges also is dangerous if there is an accident and this waste gets into something like our water system.
• Landfill: Putting garbage into and landfill is more economically viable, but there are definite limits to what is possible. The Billings landfill has about 10 years left in its current space allotment, depending on usage, but there are other concerns such as leachate (pollution/liquids seeping from the landfill down into our local water system.) The island is primarily on limestone which is riddled with cracks and become tributaries for leachate. NOTE: it may be possible to extend the area of our local landfill, depending on provincial regulations and how effectively we manage the site. Methane gas that is given off from organic waste is a particular challenge with landfills and needs to be considered, as it's a powerful GHG.

There is no perfect option on how to deal with the waste we create. Some people offer a third option, which is to burn much of our waste and create energy from it, possibly powering local buildings or adding it back to the general electrical grid.

In general, the best option is to REDUCE how much waste we create.

Review the tips above and consider what options might work for you:

• Can you stop using disposable coffee cups, or plastic water bottles?
• Can you start composting your organics, or pass them to someone else who can compost?
• Can you work with your friends and neighbours and share things like tools? or maybe even vehicles?
• Can you buy less clothing, or buy used more frequently?

The Island-wide Waste Management Plan

In June Billings hosted the first in a series of meetings to discuss what is possible to deal with waste moving forward. It was proposed that a sub-committee be created to discuss options and explore how cooperation might benefit all the local municipalities. It is thought that everyone has roughly the same issues and thus working together will open up new opportunities and ideas. There was a group analysis done about 10 years ago, which concluded that the best option was to ship our waste off-island, but life has changed and it was felt that we needed to consider these issues again.

Some of the topics discussed already are that there is value in some of the waste as materials, like pop cans, or fuel, like form wood waste. Overall, we could likely work together with each community becoming a specialist in one type of waste and helping process this waste in a more effective manner. An example discussed was glass, which is a neutral substance, but also has the potential for re-use either for further containers, or other options. 

The next meeting of this group will be on September 14th at 7pm, and community members are welcome to attend and contribute to the discussion of how we can be better stewards on our island. Stay tuned for more details.