Monday, May 26, 2008

Where do my Tax Dollars go in the Crowsnest Pass?? Recycling

Important issue for every community in this day and age. Recycling Last year the Crowsnest Pass shipped 7000 tonnes of material into our Landfill which is high in itself (1.3 tonnes per citizen, provincial average is aroung 0.8 tonnes per person). During that time frame our recycling centre gathered just over 200 tonnes that means we, the citizens of the Crowsnest Pass recycled 3% of our total garbage. Not a number in my mind to be proud of. Lets look at the cost side of this issue, it costs $41 per tonne in tipping fees at the landfill. We pay a contractor $7500 per month to provide the recycling service that's $90,000 per year, or $450 per tonne. I do not believe for a moment that we should quit recycling, what we need to do is a better job, if we increased our volume of recycled material to 10% of total volume that cost would decrease to $130 per tonne, 20% it would be down to $65 per tonne. What is the answer? how do we get more people to recycle? other communities have banned cardboard, plastic bags, we have a residential bag limit of 5 bags is that to high? Looking for input on this issue.

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