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INUVIK - Sheena Adamson believes it's unacceptable that the town doesn't have an adequate recycling program to offer its residents.

The Samuel Hearne Secondary School science teacher is all about environmental sustainability inside and outside of the classroom, where she constantly preaches to her students about the benefits of reusing plastic containers as well as a household worm compost, which she said produces no foul smell, only quality soil for flower beds.

Samuel Hearne Secondary School science teacher Sheena Adamson stands by a stack of scrap paper in the school staff room. She said town council should investigate ways to recycle paper and other items in town. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

Since waste management is a municipal government responsibility she thinks it's time for town council to implement a recycling program, which at the very least should include paper, glass bottles and tin cans, she said.

"Town council should totally show some leadership and get something going," she said. "We could be shipping our products to a place that offers comprehensive recycling, such as Whitehorse. We could partner with that city."

Currently there's a aluminum can and plastic bottle recycling depot in Inuvik, but she believes that doesn't go nearly far enough in saving the landfill from filling up with garbage that takes years to breakdown.

"We're in the dark ages here a bit," she said. "It's good that we have the can recycling program," she said. "But it's disheartening to see how much stuff ends up in the landfill."

Resident Bill Rutherford, aka the Fruit Man, earns a bit of cash by regularly filling his 53-foot Mack truck with discarded cardboard from local business owners before he makes his journeys to B.C.

Mayor Derek Lindsay said he doesn't think a recycling program would make financial sense and increasing taxes to support one wouldn't fly in Inuvik. But he said there are several transport truck fleet owners in the community who could offer the same service as Rutherford.

"If we had more enterprising individuals like that who would offer such a service we'd be better off."

Lindsay said he lobbied the territorial government to build a regional scrap metal facility at the landfill that would service the Delta area. Though initially he said the government seemed in support, money was never offered for the proposed project.

Ella Stinson, spokeswoman for the NWT Environment and Natural Resources department, said the territorial government won't help Inuvik pay for a comprehensive recycling program. But it currently spends $300,000 on a three-year program that supports individuals and groups, including municipal governments, trying to get paper and cardboard reuse programs off the ground. The deadline for this year's funding is June 30. Applications can be found on NWT Environment and Natural Resources website.

Adamson points to the greenhouse's community composting system as a local initiative that has made a big difference on cutting down waste going to the landfill. Residents are encouraged to dump their table scraps and similar waste into the depot, which will later be added to the greenhouse plots.

Although Adamson said she wouldn't be opposed to paying higher taxes to implement a more comprehensive recycling program, she added council should investigate whether there's a market to make a profit from selling various goods.

"We need to think down the road about our kids and kids' kids, and what's happening in our world right now. We need to look at the bigger picture. If that means paying higher taxes to get a program, I would be willing to do it," she said.