Greater Sudbury looking for new solid waste strategy

Greater Sudbury is updating its solid waste management master plan and is looking to get public input.

"It's going to be a document that will guide future decision-making and our future waste programs and policies over the next 10 years,” said Renee Brownlee, director of environmental services.

“Basically it's going to aim to divert and reduce waste and optimize landfill space as well as help us achieve our climate change goals."

The current plan expired in 2020. The city plans on seeking input as it looks to understand priorities and perspectives on the current and future states of the city's' waste management system.

"We all produce garbage and these are services that are provided to our community that everybody uses, whether you're a resident receiving curbside collection or you’re a business using the landfill site and we want to gain your perspectives and visions for the programming in the future," Brownlee said.

The city's current three landfills -- one in the former City of Sudbury, one in Hanmer and the other in Azilda -- combined have an average lifespan of 25 years and replacing them is not as simple as one might think, she said.

"Landfill space in Ontario is dwindling,” Brownlee said.

“We're lucky here in Greater Sudbury to have three landfill sites and we need to treat that space as a valuable asset.”

Opening a new landfill is a years-long process that could cost more than $200 million, she said. The ultimate goal is to keep all three sites going.

Danny Whalen is the president of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) and a councillor in Temiskaming Shores.

Whalen said the issue of landfill space and waste reduction is not solely a Sudbury issue. They've been working on replacing the one in Temiskaming Shores for several years.

It’s going to cost his city of 10,000 people $2 million.

"This undertaking is massive,” he said.

“It's a huge workload for staff, it's very expensive, it's very time-consuming and yet it's a very slow process so there's very little to report and can lead to a disconnect with what's going on and what the public knows is going on.”

Re-Think Green's David St. Georges said he is hopeful the city's input session will take several things into account as it looks to shape the next 10 years.

"We know people are going to want more garbage pickup, but I think another thing we're going to see that will really have impact is more options for us to dispose of our goods downtown and other places,” St. Georges said.

“Maybe centralized pickup locations."

He said having more locations for pickup can only help the city achieve its waste diversion goals, by giving people more options to throw away what they need to and to recycle.

The city is asking people to complete a survey on existing waste management programs and services by completing a survey by the end of day Feb. 24.