The department of waste and recycling for the town will be hosting a series of working sessions to discuss and prepare the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) sector for the development of a local ‘ICI waste strategy’ that would align with the 2014 strategy approved by the City of Calgary.
Since most Cochrane waste winds up in Calgary landfills, waste and recycling manager, Sharon Howland, highlights how important it is for the Cochrane ICI sector to develop a strategy that aligns with Calgary — working toward the shared goal of 80 per cent waste diversion by 2020.
Visit cochrane.ca to find out about ICI sector working sessions Sept. 24-Oct. 23 at the RancheHouse.
Howland said the goal is to have information and research gathered by the end of October, with a winter/spring presentation to council that would spur the drafting of a local ICI waste strategy.
“After much consultation and engagement, the City of Calgary determined that the best way for the ICI sector to reduce the amount of waste they are sending to landfill and to increase the amount of material they are recycling would be through (four main strategies),” said Howland.
The four areas of the strategy include: mandatory source separation (paper and cardboard; food and yard waste); differential tipping fees (recyclable materials arriving at landfill would be charged a premium rate, or almost double, as a deterrent); landfill bans (banning recyclable and compostable materials from being brought into landfills); and a timeline (by 2015, adding paper and cardboard to the designated materials list; by 2017, adding food and yard waste to the list; by 2018 banning paper and cardboard from landfills; by 2019, banning food and yard waste from landfills).
Howland said that the biggest challenge for employers in the ICI sector would likely be educating staff to adjust to the changes.
“Recycling is all about behaviour change and we all know how difficult it can be to develop new habits — but once you have, you wonder why you haven’t been doing it all along.”
The ICI sector generates more waste than any other sector, contributing 35 per cent of waste sent to landfill (33 per cent from single family dwellings; 20 per cent from construction and demolition waste; and 12 per cent from multi-family dwellings).
