In an effort to reduce the community’s waste by 50 per cent, the Town of Stephenville Crossing is in the process of setting up a composting program.
Councillor Vince Parsons, who is also secretary of Bay St. George Waste Management Committee, said the provincial government passed regulations for waste management for all communities in 2002, calling for the creation of three super sites to process waste.
“Eastern and central regions have their super sites nearly fully operational. The province will decide if western will have a super site or our waste trucked to central,” said Councillor Parsons.
“Regardless of what decision is made, disposing of our waste will become more expensive. The estimated cost per household will probably reach $250 annually.”
He said in order to reduce this estimated cost, the town is calling on residents to reduce their waste by half from each household. The town recently received 200 compost bins from the Multi Materials Stewardship Board for use by residents.
“Thirty per cent of our household waste is made up of materials that can be composted,” said the councillor. “We will be selling these bins to residents of Stephenville Crossing at a cost of $10 per bin.”
Into the bin
Councillor Parsons said the recipe for a successful compost is food items such as fruit and vegetable matter, coffee grounds and filters, tea leaves and bags, rice, oats and other grains, dried corn stalks, pasta, peanut shells, bread and other baked goods, egg shells, paper including egg cartons, paper towels, toilet paper rolls and cereal boxes.
“Also fresh grass clippings, dry leaves, dried and untreated grass clippings, twigs, small branches and sawdust, and non-diseased plants,” he said.
There are items that shouldn’t be put into a bin. These include meat, chicken, fish and shellfish, bones, fat, grease, oil, and dairy products
“Disposing of our waste in the future will be very expensive. We must start now to do what is needed to rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle.” - Councillor Vince Parsons
“Also weeds that have gone to seed, dog and cat waste, and plants sprayed with non-degradable pesticides are not acceptable,” he said.
To purchase a bin, residents can come to the town office. There’s a limit of two bins per household. For those interested in a training session, they can call the town office at 646-2600.
Other waste
The councillor noted another 37 per cent of waste is comprised of paper products.
“To reduce this amount, citizens will be required to place paper in clear garbage bags and bring them to the Green Depot (Nova Recycling) in Stephenville,” he said. “Do not put plastics and cardboard in these bags. These items must go in your regular garbage bags. The town is working on setting up a green depot in Stephenville Crossing.”
A further eight per cent of garbage is made up of recyclable pop tins, plastic pop battles, juice cartons, juice tins and liquor bottles.
“You need to collect these and bring them to the green depot in Stephenville,” he said. “If that is not possible, the town is partnering with St. Michael’s Elementary in their recycling program. You are encouraged to bring your recyclables to St. Michael’s. Make sure pop tins are in one bag, plastic pop bottles in another, plastic and tin juice containers in another and liquor bottles in another.”
Councillor Parsons said if all residents take part, they can easily reach the goal of cutting the community’s waste by half.
“Failure to do so will result in much higher collection and disposal costs for our town,” he noted. “Disposing of our waste in the future will be very expensive. We must start now to do what is needed to rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle.”
