Changes are coming this Fall to the garbage collection system.
That’s according to Gena Alderson – the Waste Diversion Coordinator for the Southeast Regional Service Commission.
She says the commission voted to move to a three bag garbage system in the Fall.
“The three bag system is essentially your blue bag will be recyclables, your green bag will be just organics, and compostable materials, and the third bag will be really anything else,” says Alderson. “So all of the garbage.”
She says they are expecting operational savings because waste will be easier to sort, and will reduce the amount of garbage in landfills.
“Each landfill cell is a $2 million cost, and it lasts us two years,” says Alderson. “So if we’re able to landfill less, that means we can drag that out longer, and spread that $2 million over more than two years, ideally we’d like to see four years.”
Alderson adds “even though I mentioned costs savings on the sorting, we’re not anticipating any sort of job loss, or laying anybody off. The idea is any reduction in sorters would be repurposing to other services that we’re hoping to offer in our region.”
Alderson says they are working closely with municipal partners to implement this new strategy to make it become a reality.
