The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Less garbage will end up in the environment when the Flin Flon and District Environment Council assumes operation of the Flin Flon Municipal Landfill on February 1. Once the takeover begins, landfill staff will sift through unbagged garbage to separate the non-recyclables from the recyclables. The latter will be trucked to the Flin Flon Recycling Centre for sorting and processing. "I bet you we could recover an additional 30 per cent of items, with our ultimate aim being 50 per cent," said Doreen Murray, administrator of the recycling centre, which is run by the environment council. "There's no question that working to protect the environment is in everybody's favour." The environment council last week signed a contract with the City of Flin Flon to operate the landfill. The City currently oversees the operation and will continue to monitor it throughout the duration of the contract. The new landfill staff to be hired by the environment council will keep their eyes peeled to ensure as few recyclables as possible are sent to the landfill. To start, they will pay particular attention to cardboard, which Murray said takes up a surprising amount of space at the landfill. The environment council will initiate a public awareness campaign to encourage residents to separate their recyclables from their garbage when making trips to the landfill. Murray sees several positive spin-offs from the arrangement, including her belief that it will significantly prolong the life of the landfill. She estimated that the arrangement will give the landfill another 10 to 20 years of life before the space simply runs out. Without the takeover, she said, the landfill could have faced a closure in as little as five years. See 'There' P.# Con't from P.# Murray pointed out that another Northern Manitoba community may have to soon close its landfill and establish a new one at a significant cost Ñ as much as $1 million Ñ to taxpayers. The takeover could also produce as many as five new jobs: two or three at the landfill itself and possibly another two at the recycling centre to help with the increased influx of recyclables. And since the recycling centre will process more product, it will collect more revenue from the sale of those products. That money will stay in the community through the payment of employees. While the goal of the landfill takeover is to decrease garbage output, Murray said the environment council will also place an emphasis on "cost efficiency." For instance, the council doesn't plan to contract out certain landfill services as is currently done. "It's our hope that at some point, that cost efficiency can be passed along to the taxpayer," said the administrator. The council also hopes to improve the appearance of the landfill by covering the garbage with fill on a more frequent basis and discouraging people from picking through the refuse. "What we are going to strive for is a neater, more aesthetically pleasing situation out there," said Murray. "Right now, it's a mess." This is the first situation Murray is aware of in which an independent environmental group will assume operation of a municipal landfill. "There's no question there will be a learning curve," she said. "But the City seems to have placed a fair bit of confidence in us and our ability to run the landfill in a very environmentally friendly and cost efficient manner."
