OPINION: If you care about your tax dollars, live sustainably

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By Nick Seebruch
OPINION: If you care about your tax dollars, live sustainably
Recycling bin (Nick Seebruch/ Seaway News).

Cornwall is going down to a two-bag garbage limit in April, and it is a good thing for taxpayers and a good thing for the environment.

It was April 2019 when the City of Cornwall first introduced a six-bag garbage limit, dropping it down to four this past October.

The reason why the City of Cornwall chose to enact a garbage bag limit in the first place came down saving taxpayer dollars.

The City of Cornwall landfill is running out of space. In 2018 it was estimated that there was about 12 years of space left in the Cornwall landfill.

Closing a landfill, let along opening a new one, costs money, a lot of money. It is estimated that the cost of closing the Cornwall landfill and maintaining the site afterward will cost the City of Cornwall $36 million.

It is that $36 million price tag that makes sustainability an even more pressing issue in Cornwall than it may be in our neighbouring municipalities.

Sustainability and waste management has probably been the file that has seen the most attention from City Council and administration over the past few years.

Not just through bag limits, but the City seems to be trying everything they think will work to divert garbage away from the landfill.

In fact, the desire to divert as much garbage from the landfill was one of the reasons Cornwall City Council chose to award the waste management contract to e360 solutions in 2019, changing Cornwall’s garbage collection contractor for the first time in 28 years.

This year, the City also opened their FreeStore at the landfill, which has garnered regional attention. The FreeStore allows members of the public to collect items that have been sent to the dump, but are still useful, like old chairs and desks.

Keeping as much waste out of the landfill as possible will save money, but saving money always requires some sacrifice. That being said, the City has done quite a lot to make the sacrifice that Cornwall residents are being asked to make in the form of the garbage bag limit, as painless as possible.

The City sells bag tags for those who find themselves over the garbage bag limit. Bag tags are sold in sheets of 10 for $15 apiece.

The City also accepts petitions for exemptions from those who claim that medical issues cause them to produce more waste than the bag limit can accommodate. Those who seek a medical exemption can receive an application form by emailing wm@cornwall.ca or by calling 613-937-1777.

“The privacy and dignity of our residents is most important,” said Dave Kuhn, Waste Management Supervisor. “We will provide bag tags to those who have medical conditions that lead to extra waste.”

Just this week, the City of Cornwall added another exemption. The City now exempts diapers and other incontinence products from the garbage bag limit. Residents do not even have to apply for this exemption, they just need to put all of these exempt products in a clear plastic bag and they will not count towards the bag limit.

All of these exemptions, all of this effort on the part of the City to save us taxpayers some money, the least that we can do in response is to do our part and be diligent in our efforts to do what we can and divert waste from the landfill.

I don’t have kids of my own, so I don’t know how easy or sanitary cloth diapers are, but if you do have little ones that are in diapers at home, and are comfortable with using cloth diapers, maybe give them a shot and see if you can help us all get a few more years out of our landfill.

There is no limit on recycling bags. Put everything you can into a blue bag, instead of a black one.

Earlier this year the City also updated the types of items that can be recycled. Items such as grocery bags (except black), bread bags, milk bags, freezer bags, produce bags, cereal box liners, dry cleaner bags, cling wrap, newspaper bags (with newspaper removed), and apple or carrot bags can all be recycled.

We have one planet, regardless if the local landfill has 12 years of life left, five years, or 50, we should do all that we can to leave as small of an ecological footprint as possible.

Even if climate change, or environmental conservation isn’t your game, then as someone who cares about their tax dollars, live sustainably. It really matters and every little bit really does make a difference.

What do you think readers of the bag limit and the situation with the Cornwall landfill? Email me a Letter to the Editor to nseebruch@seawaynews.media

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