The City of North Battleford wants to find out more about what you are throwing in the trash.
They will be conducting a residential waste audit this year on all the residential waste in the city. Council members learned more about it at Monday’s Planning Committee meeting at City Hall.
It’s being launched for the first time, and Tammy MacCormack, assistant director of utility services, is looking forward to getting it started.
MacCormack said it was “very exciting to get to know what our residents are throwing away and potentially what kind of diversion programs we can come up with.” It will set a baseline to work with, she said.
Waste audits are used to determine the amount and the type of waste generated by residential properties using representative data. The information can be used to develop goals and strategies for residential waste reduction and diversion.
According to MacCormack, the waste audit will collect data from 100 residential properties between May 27 and 31. The audit will target properties in all parts of the city.
Categories used to sort the waste are paper, plastic, glass, metal, organics, beverage containers, electronics, household hazardous waste, textiles and other waste. These categories will then be broken down into further subcategories.
The next week, staff will conduct the audit on recycling bins from the same addresses.
Staff from the waste management facility will be trained on how to do these audits, including how to sort and measure the waste.
MacCormack said waste management staff will be able to take their training and do seasonal audits on a quarterly basis, to track seasonal variations. They could also be able to conduct audits on city-owned facilities as well in the future.
The data from the audits will then be used to develop the city’s short-term and long-term goals for waste management, waste reduction and diversion.
The meeting veered into discussion of another issue that has come up at City Hall in recent months – plastic bags.
There had been talk in recent months of bringing in a city-wide plastic bag ban.
City Manager Randy Patrick confirmed to councillors conducting the audit would allow a look at the plastic bags issue. Mayor Ryan Bater had noted the survey would give the city a better idea how many plastic bags go into the landfill.
As for a plastic bag ban, Patrick further explained the city plans to go to the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce and ask about the impact a ban would have on businesses, so council “can be given as much information on the decision as possible.”
Administration will also be looking at what other cities and provinces have done.
