{"id":5265,"date":"2014-01-22T14:51:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T19:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5265"},"modified":"2014-01-29T15:44:39","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T20:44:39","slug":"clear-bag-program-will-come-under-closer-look-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/clear-bag-program-will-come-under-closer-look-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Clear Bag program will come under closer look this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Aurora\u2019s Clear Bag waste program, which would make dark green and black household garbage bags a thing of the past across Town, will come under closer scrutiny this week after clearing its first hurdle at the committee level. <\/p>\n

Councillors approved a motion at last week\u2019s General Committee which would bring forward a \u201csoft launch\u201d of the Clear Bag initiative this July to educate residents about the new way to dispose of their trash, ahead of the full-out launch on January 1, 2015. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the beginning of the next big thing,\u201d Ilmar Simanovskis, Aurora\u2019s Director of Infrastructure and Environmental Services, told Councillors last week. \u201cThere is a lot of activity in the east coast with this program, and there are a number of municipalities in Ontario picking up the pieces. Just in the last six months we\u2019ve had it locally in York Region [in Markham] and with Markham\u2019s success we brought this report forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clear garbage bags will provide waste collectors insight into just what exactly they are picking up and ensuring it goes into the proper channel. It results in \u201ccleaner waste\u201d he noted before it goes onto the next step of the disposal process, increases diversion rates of items out of the garbage system into recycling and composting streams, or out of the system all together such as batteries and paint cans, and saves money by minimising sorting that needs to be done. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one of those programs that as people start recognizing the value of it and the fear of change is not as risky, there is an uptake as more municipalities catch on,\u201d said Mr. Simanovskis. \u201cFrom my perspective, best benefit to us would be very little change in behaviour. In Markham\u2019s case, a 10 per cent increase in the diversion of recyclable materials [is] to me a very effective and very inexpensive win.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Councillors were largely in support of going forward with the program, Councillor Michael Thompson was one of the few voices of hesitation. For him, not all the cards were on the table for Council\u2019s consideration, particularly the \u201cchallenges\u201d of other municipalities that have put this program in place not only in getting residents on board, but also from an efficiency standpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is taking longer for [collectors] to do the routes because they are spending time checking the clear bags and stuff,\u201d said Councillor Thompson. \u201cThe report is very rosy but I am not seeing some of the issues and challenges, or a little bit explaining some of the possible implications that we\u2019re fully aware of what this switch means. There are some bumps in the road. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve read about other municipalities having significant push back on clear bags and some of the steps they have taken along with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

After asking for a further presentation being made by Council by Vision Quest, which worked with the City of Markham to get this program in place, to address these concerns, they are expected to appear before Council this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am a little hesitant to rubber stamp this tonight without really understanding some of the challenges and bumps in the road,\u201d Councillor Thompson concluded.<\/p>\n

Other issues around the table included a concern from Councillor Sandra Humfryes in ensuring local retailers were on board with keeping clear garbage bags in ready supply, as well as from Councillor Wendy Gaertner on the provision in the proposal where one can still put their garbage in opaque grocery bags before popping them into a clear garbage bag before they hit the curb.<\/p>\n

The answer was \u201cyes\u201d for both questions. Speaking to the latter, Mr. Simanovskis said they are not trying to \u201cchange the behaviours\u201d of people using grocery bags or white bags like Kitchen Catchers, but the intent is to weed out some of the \u201cmore obvious contaminants\u201d like computer elements, electronics, and construction activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is to allow for typical household activities to proceed and it gives us an opportunity to catch materials which shouldn\u2019t be in the waste stream.\u201d
\nSpeaking in favour of the plan, Mayor Geoffrey Dawe said he appreciated the concerns but noted it is another step forward in the Region\u2019s SM4RT Living Waste Reduction Campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201c[In] other municipalities it has improved their diversion rate and certainly some of the issues we have to deal with is landfill and where the waste goes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Added Councillor Evelyn Buck, relating the program to upcoming waste partnerships between York and Durham Regions, \u201cI think it is an excellent step in progress. It is absolutely critical we get that stuff out of the garbage before it gets anywhere close to the incinerator.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora\u2019s Clear Bag waste program, which would make dark green and black household garbage bags a thing of the past across Town, will come under closer scrutiny this week after clearing its first hurdle at the committee level. <\/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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1mV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 12:22:46","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\/5265","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=5265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}