Sault Ste. Marie prepares for organic waste collection
In response to a mandate from the province, the City of Sault Ste. Marie is preparing for organic waste collection.
The Sault has to begin organic waste collection by 2025. While not downplaying the need for waste diversion strategies, some are expressing concern about the costs of implementing the program.
Susan Hamilton Beach, the city’s director of public works, said an organics program will likely mean higher budgets, but it will also significantly reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill.
“It’s approximately 50 per cent of the waste stream,” she said.
“So, when you sit back and think that half of the waste is (organics,) and can, in fact, be diverted, there truly is no reason to place it in the garbage stream.”
Mayor Matthew Shoemaker said the provincial mandate should have come with corresponding funding that could be used to purchase greener garbage trucks and equipment.
“We’re stuck with equipment that runs on combustion engines and contributes to greenhouse gases,” Shoemaker said.
“It’s great that we are improving our collection system generally, but we want to make it a greener collection system across the board.”
Both Shoemaker and Hamilton Beach said organics collection has been looked at off-and-on, but was found to be cost-prohibitive.
But some said the move is long overdue.
“The whole community has asked for this for more than 25 years,” said Peter McLarty, vice-chair of the environmental group Clean North.
“It has been done in other communities 20 years ago and they say, ‘Why isn’t the Sault doing it?’”
McLarty said it’s ultimately up to citizens to take care of the environment.
“You could start at home, simply by reducing the amount of your own compostable materials or doing your own composting,” he said.
Meantime, the city is looking into the idea of bi-weekly garbage and recyclables collection as a means of controlling costs. Organics would be collected weekly to cut down on odours that could attract rodents and other wildlife.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit the federal carbon price on natural gas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.