{"id":10106,"date":"2015-03-18T23:02:52","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T03:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10106"},"modified":"2015-03-18T23:02:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T03:02:52","slug":"further-waste-diversion-methods-could-be-explored-after-clear-bags-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/further-waste-diversion-methods-could-be-explored-after-clear-bags-flop\/","title":{"rendered":"Further waste diversion methods could be explored after Clear Bags flop"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Council might have killed the proposed Clear Bag program last week, but other efforts to help reduce the amount of garbage Aurorans send into the waste stream are likely to continue. <\/p>\n

Speaking out against moving forward with the Clear Bags, several Councillors suggested it was not a wasted effort and the findings of the studies leading up to last Tuesday\u2019s vote could ultimately be of use for an overall waste diversion plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf [Ilmar Simanovskis, Aurora\u2019s Director of Environmental Services] can come back with a waste strategy for the Town of Aurora to\u2026improve our waste diversion rate from a certain figure to a certain figure and look at different options, let\u2019s have that discussion,\u201d said Councillor Thompson.<\/p>\n

A wide-ranging waste strategy outlining all options available to Aurora would only be beneficial, added Councillor Humfryes, noting she would rather see public workshops on recycling strategies rather than continued efforts to persuade the public on clear bags. <\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I understand the merit and we want to do our best for recycling and keeping the environment healthy, I am not sure this is the right strategy overall,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are so many other things we can work on with our staff and knowledge out there in terms of where it is going.\u201d
\n\u201cI think waste is important and I think diversion rates are important,\u201d added Councillor John Abel. \u201cI think as we go down the road it will be a bigger factor in how municipalities in Ontario manage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Thompson suggested it would be more pertinent to seek suggestions on how residents can help make the world a \u201cgreener\u201d place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not look at ways residents, if they want to, can help reduce the tonnage [of garbage going into the waste stream], which is essential, to help increase the diversion rate,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are many things they can do to help make Aurora a greener place. We have debated the pros and cons of it at length, but I think it is essential we continue to look at ways to achieve a reduction in our tonnage and increase our diversion rate. There are other municipalities that have a higher diversion rate than us that don\u2019t have a clear bag program. What are they doing that we\u2019re not? There are many other initiatives I think are more appropriate and better suited for Aurora.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Councillor Tom Mrakas said moving forward with a Clear Bag program was \u201cshaming our residents\u201d into doing something that wouldn\u2019t ultimately be helpful, using mounting unrecyclable Kuerig K-Cups as an example, Councillor John Abel rejected that idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a matter of shaming,\u2019 he said. \u201cIt is an initiative and showing leadership. It is nothing more. I was hoping we would give it a trial basis [but] if we\u2019re not interested in doing that and we want to [go] another route, I am all for that as well. We\u2019re all for diversion, but we\u2019re not going to do it this way. We will find another way to increase our diversion rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we vote this down, you\u2019re not saying you\u2019re not in favour of diversion rates. I understand that. I have seen value in how well this works in Markham. There is resistance at first, but like anything, once it is employed, it works well and the results are significant.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council might have killed the proposed Clear Bag program last week, but other efforts to help reduce the amount of garbage Aurorans send into the waste stream are likely to continue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2D0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 14:12:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}