Excuses aren’t going to solve the incoming garbage crisis, says Penetanguishene Mayor Doug Rawson.
A recent Simcoe County report on 2024 solid waste stated that in a select audit of garbage carts, just 24.2 per cent of contents contained garbage by weight, while organic material that could have gone in green bins measured 46.4 per cent, nearly double the weight of garbage.
Deputy Mayor Dan La Rose spoke at the recent Penetanguishene council meeting to the county report.
“They showed a diversion rate of 66.4 per cent, which is higher than 2023,” said La Rose. “But, with our landfills filling up and coming to an end as they are, we only have a year or so left.”
“What you’re going to see from the county is a new education program trying to remind people to step it up,” said La Rose. “It’s time to take the next step, getting our organics bins working even better than they are. Even though we’re doing well, 46 per cent could go up so we’re going to work on that.”
Rawson spoke to MidlandToday during the meeting, with a focus on why residents haven’t latched onto the necessity of being mindful for garbage disposal in light of estimated landfill closures by 2027.
“I think we lost an opportunity last year,” said Rawson. “(At county council,) I voted in favour of: ‘you don’t put out a green bin, you don’t get your garbage bin (taken)’. I’ll support that full and full.
“The reality is, I think more so today than ever we have no other options. With the tariff discussion thing, county staff is saying to us: ‘one of our options was shipping garbage to the U.S.’ Well, how much are they going to charge for that now? If we used to get it for $1-per-tonne, now it’s going to be $18 trillion-per-tonne,” Rawson quipped. “We’ve got to be strong environmental leaders. We just can’t keep saying ‘landfill’.”
Rawson said the county had provided good education and resources for residents, including the ‘Waste Wizard’ section of the Simcoe website where a search of an item can inform residents of recycling or disposal methods.
“Now we have single-stream recycling; so you don’t even need to sort that,” Rawson added. “Just a single-stream blue bin – or if it’s organic, put it in the green bin. If today you’re throwing it in the garbage, you can do better… and we all have to do better.”
When asked if it was a matter of getting residents used to sorting their items, Rawson countered: “I think it’s pure laziness. I think we all say ‘environment’, we all say the magic words but if we’re using an excuse right now saying it’s because of ‘x’ – we’ve been talking about this (for years).”
Rawson concluded by hinting that he may challenge other mayors of North Simcoe to an upcoming initiative to get area residents more involved in diversion efforts.
Information on the 2024 solid waste data summary can be found on the committee of the whole agenda page of the Simcoe County website.