City Council voted to adopt the Blue Box and Waste Diversion Plan at last night’s meeting, and multiple councillors spoke about how well the program currently works in the city. The cost per tonne of blue box materials processing in North Bay is $203, which is substantially lower than other rural regions. Councillor Mac Bain says the garbage and recycling contract with Miller Waste is the envy of a lot of communities around Ontario at the rate they’re receiving.
Bain says as a community, North Bay can do better when it comes to garbage and recycling however. He says whenever council has a chance to address this system they have to talk about its benefits. Bain says one of the driving negative factors when it comes to the blue boxes is things that aren’t recyclable being put in them. Bain mentioned Tim Horton’s cups and K-Cup coffee pods among the items that shouldn’t be put out. He says it’s important for people to keep those things out of blue boxes, because it actually costs the city to have to recycle them if they make it to the landfill.
Bain also added while the city has a great set up with the current program, he warned about a potential move by the province to ban organics from the Merrick Landfill in the future. He says unlike the blue box program which is 50% funded by stewards, which are the people that produce the things we recycle, an organics ban would shift the cost completely to the taxpayers. Bain says that would equal a nearly three per cent tax increase on residents, but he’s reached out to the province to ask them to exempt the city due to geography and population density.
