By Chad Ingram

Published Nov. 3 2016

Minden Hills residents are invited to weigh in on a development and operational plan for the Scotch Line landfill.

A draft of the plan which will govern operations at the landfill site for the next several years was presented to Minden Hills councillors by representatives from Cambium Consulting and Engineering during an Oct. 27 council meeting.

In operation for more than 65 years the Scotch Line landfill has about 222500 cubic metres of capacity remaining. With residents generating about 7000 cubic metres of waste per year that puts the landfill’s remaining lifespan at about 30 years.

The plan looks at everything from drainage to composting to diversion of electronics to methods for increasing revenue.

“It’s very difficult to generate revenue on waste disposal site” Dave Bucholtz Cambium’s general manager of environmental services told council.

A number of potential money-saving/revenue-generating ideas are outlined in the draft plan. These include reducing the bag limit and moving to a “pay as you throw” program.

“Under this system the more waste residents produce the more they pay” the draft plan reads. “This provides a direct economic incentive to reduce reuse and recycle. Research shows that a full or partial user-pay system with very limited ‘free’ bags provides the greatest incentive to increase diversion. In an analysis conducted by the Association of Municipal Recycling Co-ordinators it was found that recycling tonnage increases ranged from 22 per cent to 86 per cent and that decreases in waste tonnage ranged from six per cent to 61 per cent after the implementation of pay-as-you-throw programs in six Ontario municipalities that allowed only one or no free bags per week”

The current bag limit in Minden Hills is three bags of household waste.

The plan also investigates the relocation of the landfill’s transfer station the creation of a hazardous waste depot and the addition of weigh scales among many other possible changes.

Copies of a survey on the Scotch Line landfill can be picked up at the Minden Hills township office at 7 Milne St. The survey can also be found on the township’s website at www.mindenhills.ca/environmental/landfill-operations/

Surveys can be completed until Nov. 10.

There will also be a public meeting on the draft plan this Saturday Nov. 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Minden Hills council chambers.