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Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services
Unlike past recycling initiatives, which have been hampered by an acceptable list of materials limited to paper products or required depot drop-offs, the new waste-reduction program tackles two major components of the residential waste stream: plastics and steel cans.
 The man responsible for closing the loop: Iqaluit's director of engineering, Matthew Hough. - Kirsten Murphy/NNSL photo |
"We have a great starting point but it will expand," promised Matthew Hough, the city's director of engineering, last week.
Expansion possibilities include lengthening the lists of material collected and incineration or landfill options.
The new service involves distributing 2,000 blue boxes and a two-month supply of blue bags to city households.
Making sure residents understand how to use them is vital. A detailed instruction booklet in English, Inuktitut and French accompanies each kit and the city spent close to $70,000 of its $200,000 startup budget on communications.
Every week residents are to stuff the bags full of type 1 or type 2 plastics -- which kind is denoted by a symbol on the bottom of each container -- and steel cans.
Other types of plastics will head to the dump.
The blue boxes are designed to provide a convenient storage container within the home, but all recyclables must be left in the special bags for pickup.
For now, businesses and restaurants are not included. But nothing is stopping businesses from separating their own waste and taking it to the sealift bins on West 40 Road.
Recyclables get collected weekly with bagged garbage. When the blue bags run out, residents must purchase their own.
"It's a concern," Hough said of the potential disincentives such a cost may pose.
However, he added, talks are underway to find funding sources for replacement bags and boxes.
The blue bags represent the first step of a larger solid-waste management plan. Presently, the city's garbage is burned at the dump.
"Clearly, burning garbage is not ideal. Recycling will change the amount of waste going into the landfill," Hough said.
Skepticism remains
Debate around waste disposal is not new in Iqaluit.
Previous councils and solid waste committees have tossed proposals around. The economics of transporting recyclables to southern processors has proven daunting, however.
Some citizens, Marcel Mason among them, have asked for a garbage "autopsy" to determine exactly what and how much ends up at the dump.
More recently, Paul Crowley applied for a temporary stop-burning injunction.
For all the good the recycling new system will do, critics remain skeptical.
"It falls extremely short," said Crowley. "In terms of dangerous products in the burn pile there are things beyond plastics that won't get dealt with at all, like foam trays and treated wood."
Crowley said he wants options other than an incinerator considered, such as compaction.
Iqaluit resident Jim Little agrees.
"It's not a recycling program, it a diversion," he said. "They're trying to sell it a lead up to incineration."
The first weekly collection starts Dec. 3 and coincides will garbage day. The material will be transported to one of nine containers along West 40 road, less than a kilometre from the existing dump. Items will be sorted, stored and shipped south. No recycling will take place here.
"I know there are people out there who have concerns but this in only the first step," Hough said.
