{"id":5616,"date":"2014-02-19T17:41:51","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T22:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5616"},"modified":"2014-02-19T17:41:51","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T22:41:51","slug":"council-needs-more-facts-before-green-lighting-clear-bags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/council-needs-more-facts-before-green-lighting-clear-bags\/","title":{"rendered":"Council needs more facts before green-lighting clear bags"},"content":{"rendered":"

What, if any, costs or savings to the taxpayer will there be if we implement the clear bag program?
\nFor example, will there be additional collection costs charged by GFL in return for \u201cinspecting\u201d our garbage?
\nInspecting garbage means collection will take longer. It makes sense that GFL will want to be compensated. Who will decide what constitutes a \u2018sufficient\u2019 inspection? How will that be policed?
\nHow far, exactly, is Aurora prepared to go with enforcement?
\nAs pointed out, recycling \u201cdeniers\u201d will still have the ability to hide items within the clear bag. How will we be able to confirm that clear bags have improved recycling habits, or not? On a windy collection day my neighbourhood is littered with blue box items that will never get to the recycling depot.
\nWhat has Aurora council done to help keep Aurora clean and push York Region to allow the use of blue recycling bags?
\nIs Council satisfied that the \u201cneed\u201d for clear bags has been established? Is the Region suffering from a shortage of recyclables?
\nFor example, according to the York Region Waste report a third, about 30,000 tons, of collected organic waste ended up going to the incinerator anyway.
\nMost of York Region\u2019s garbage and unused recyclables are burned in a Waste to Energy Facility either in Brampton or New York until the Durham facility opens.
\nDo we really need to worry about increasing our diversion rate when we can\u2019t process what we already collect?
\nAnd how do we know how much recyclable material is being disposed of in green bags? Is someone already inspecting Aurora\u2019s garbage or are we just assuming so?
\nEnvironmentally-friendly initiatives are great, when they make sense.
\nIt makes no sense to switch to clear bags simply because other cities have, or that it \u201csounds like a good idea.\u201d
\nWe should recall that corn-based ethanol fuel was thought by many to be an environmental \u201cwin\u201d until it turned out it really wasn\u2019t.
\nHopefully Council will gather the facts and make a decision based solely on what makes sense for the taxpayers of Aurora.<\/p>\n

Barry Hall
\nAurora<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What, if any, costs or savings to the taxpayer will there be if we implement the clear bag program? For example, will there be additional collection costs charged by GFL in return for \u201cinspecting\u201d our garbage? Inspecting garbage means collection will take longer. It makes sense that GFL will want to be compensated. Who will […]<\/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":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1sA","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 12:23:02","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\/5616","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=5616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}