April 22, 2009
It’s not easy being green
Nova Scotians creating more waste; recyclers face depressed market
|
 |
 "A worker sweeps debris at the Halifax region’s recycling facility in Bayers Lake on Monday. (DARREN PITTMAN / Staff)</p>")
NOVA SCOTIA’S crown as an international leader in recycling and waste disposal is looking a tad off-kilter these days.
A financial war chest, representing years of recycling fees paid for beverage containers, tires and electronics, remains strong.
However, statistics show that solid waste disposal has stalled at about 477 kilograms per person and shows little sign of declining.
Promoters of green living are becoming increasingly skeptical about the provincial government’s stated objective of reducing the figure to 300 kilograms (about the combined weight of three adult males ) per person by 2015.
"Nova Scotia’s numbers on solid waste disposal are headed in the wrong direction," said researcher Ronald Colman, who regularly reviews recycling and waste disposal statistics at GPI Atlantic.
"We’re actually falling behind."
GPI Atlantic is a non-profit research group that publishes the Genuine Progress Index for Atlantic Canada.
The recycling deposit fees Nova Scotians pay to support public education and local waste diversion schemes have not increased for more than a decade.
With a dime paid on every beverage container and $3 for every tire, the amount collected annually by the Truro-based Resource Recovery Fund Board Inc. has swelled to the $40-million range in recent years, according to the government agency’s 2008 financial statements.
Most of that money goes back to recyclers, said board spokesman Jeff Myrick.
Despite this big number, things are looking glum on the front lines of the solid waste diversion battle: the ENVIRO-DEPOTS, independently-operated collection centres operating in communities across the province.
"We’re stacking bales of cardboard out back. We were getting $65 a tonne for this stuff two years ago. Today we have to pay $45 per tonne to get rid of it," said Dennis Cochrane during a recent walkabout at Elmsdale Recycling Ltd.
The enviro-depot operator also has big bins of non-recyclable plastics stored at his East Hants site. The depressed market for recycled goods has stifled his industry, he said.
Municipalities across Canada are shuddering with expectations of lower payments for recycled products from their waste diversion programs this year and Nova Scotia communities are no exception. (They received a total of $7.8 million from RRFB Nova Scotia in 2008).
"The demand for scrap metal has slowed to a trickle . . . except for a minor little blip upward in China recently," said scrap dealer Jonathan Ross at John Ross and Sons Ltd. in Halifax.
The sad state of the economy does not reflect sluggish reductions in disposal figures that extend back to 2000, according to statistics available through the Department of Environment.
They show that in 2000 the per capita disposal rate was down to a remarkable 357 kilograms per person, but has risen constantly since then topping out at 477 kilograms per person in 2007.
Nova Scotians are still North American recycling champions, according to Clean Nova Scotia. And Statistics Canada shows the province leading the country in waste disposal numbers, even if they crept upward in recent years.
Increased consumer consumption and increased construction activity contributed to the increase in the disposal rate, said Charlene Boyce Young at the Ecology Action Centre, but she said "green fatigue" may also be a factor.
"People have a lot of demands on their time and when it comes to recycling some might be getting lazy," she said.
A more aggressive effort to get people to stop using, or to recycle, plastic water bottles would be a good way to lower the disposal rate, she suggested.
Despite the seeming, stressed out state of recycling and disposal on the front lines, there is optimism at the Department of Environment about the viability of attaining the 2015 disposal objective of 300 kilograms per person. It means each Nova Scotian must deposit about 176 kilograms less.
"Meeting the 2015 objective requires reducing our current disposal rate by about 35 per cent and there are many opportunities to achieve this," said Virginia Olsen, the province’s waste strategy co-ordinator.
Something as simple as provincewide use of clear plastic garbage bags would account for a significant chunk of that 35 per cent figure, she said.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1117826.html
