At our last town council meeting we banned garburators from Cochrane. Banning garburators in Cochrane was a ridiculous decision. This ban was motivated by a belief that reducing waste in our sinks would be good for the environment. If I thought kitchen food scraps were causing global warming, I may have been inclined to support this move. However, just because an idea sounds trendy and progressive, doesn’t mean it's intelligent.
I believe banning garburators is total nonsense for a number of reasons.
First: Banning garburators will have no tangible impact on the quality of water coming out of any wastewater treatment facility. People in Cochrane are still going to be flushing their toilets, and we will still be piping all of our wastewater to Calgary to be treated.
Second: We don’t believe that banning garburators will significantly reduce household water consumption. A presentation given to council mentioned a study, which found that garburators cause less than a one per cent increase in household water use.
Third: We have no proof to suggest that the ban will have a material impact on our costs for wastewater treatment. Our own administration told us that such a cost is impossible to calculate. If council’s decision was done to reduce the costs of wastewater treatment, it was based on guesswork.
Fourth: all of Cochrane’s organic waste and scraps will still have to go somewhere. With Cochrane’s green bin program coming in the near future, most organic scraps diverted from sinks will be put into a bin, collected by a truck and then driven into the city for recycling. I struggle to believe that trucking food scraps around is going to be better for the environment.
Fifth: As part of our blue bin program, the government expects people to wash their food containers before putting them into their recycling bins. Garburators assist in that process, and encourage people to recycle properly.
Sixth: the organic waste collected at the wastewater treatment facility in Calgary is currently being recycled and reused as biosolids. This means it is better for organics to be received at the wastewater treatment facility, than to end up in people’s garbage cans. That is why Banff is actually encouraging the use of garburators.
Finally: Even if banning garburators was going to help the environment, such a ban is impossible for the municipal government to enforce. After the initial construction of a home, there is nothing we can do to stop families from going to Canadian Tire and buying a garburator to install. Why council knowingly passed an unenforceable bylaw is beyond me.
Ultimately, I know this ban won’t change anyone’s life. However, banning garburators is just another example of government waste and useless regulation. Governments shouldn’t be banning and regulating anything unless it is causing a clear danger to society. This garburator ban was passed on a whim, and was an unreasonable use of council’s authority.
Regards,
Coun. Morgan Nagel
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