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Public forum addresses recycling

5884rimbeyRecycling-meeting
Rimbey Mayor Dale Barr addresses the audience during a public forum to discuss local recycling efforts. The meeting was held last Thursday night at the Community Centre.

Staff reporter

Approximately 100 local residents concerned about recycling in the community, met last Thursday evening for a public forum on the matter and by all indications, the gathering was a success.

The forum, which was called for by a group of concerned citizens known as the Rimbey United Church Board (RUCB), featured guest speakers including Christina Seidel of the Recycling Council of Alberta, Dave Whitfield of Alberta Environment and Rimbey Mayor Dale Barr.

“I think for the organization, the meeting was great. We had close to 100 people out, so I think these are 100 concerned citizens talking about recycling in Rimbey,” said Marion Slomp who spoke on behalf of the RUCB and added her group found some the answer they sought. “I think Mayor Barr would like to see an ethanol plant as the answer for recycling but I think the speeches from Christina (Seidel) and Dave (Whitfield) were more about the fact that the emissions for recycling are a lot lower than producing things from raw material or even the output from an ethanol plant, but with so many people at the meeting, we’re hoping we can sway public opinion so more people will reduce, because that’s the important thing. We have to reduce, then reuse, then recycle.”

As for the Town’s position, Mayor Barr said any time spent discussing issues such as recycling with the public is time well spent.

“We were pleased with the turnout. Certainly recycling over the years has had many, many challenges. It was a great opportunity to share where we’ve been in the past, where we are right now and certainly what we’re looking at in the future,” Barr said. “There are many models across the province - some have been tried and been successful and some have not, so all we’re trying to do is find the magic spot to try and see how we develop our collection system and our downstream use of that collection.”

One of the bigger issues discussed was the practice of burning cardboard rather then recycling it, but a market that has flat-lined in price over the past few years has resulted in a glut on the market. Complicating the problem is the fact that there currently are no cardboard recycling mills in Alberta meaning in order to recycle it, the cardboard must be trucked to the United States, resulting in huge costs for local taxpayers.

“I think it was pretty clear last night at the meeting for the group that was there, that there’s a whole bunch of stuff that we’re doing right now. The challenges are on some of the stuff that hasn’t been worthy of the downstream processing, and we’ve found alternative ways to deal with them,” Barr said. “We don’t, and never expected it to be a long-term solution. We’ve been researching and checking a number of different ways to deal with this issue, specifically the cardboard, for the last three years.”

Barr said he agreed with the comments of Seidel in that there is an onus on those who produce the waste to ensure that it is properly disposed of and in most cases that involves a certain amount of recycling.

“I do agree with the recycle council that stewardship of those who are producing the waste, have a responsibility to try and assist downstream when that product comes to its end of life,” Barr said. “In my opinion, we really need to change the model that’s out there because right now, it’s perceived as a strong working model, and that’s the key word – it’s ‘perceived’, but there’s still a number of issues down the road that have to be dealt with.”

Further, Barr said any element of success in recycling hinges on the commitment of individual citizens to sort and separate their waste, which in turn, could result in significantly lower costs in the areas of labour and transportation.

The issue of the construction of a permanent recycling depot in Rimbey was also discussed but with an estimated price tag of approximately $400,000, plus an additional $100,000 for equipment to deal with cardboard alone, the cost of such a facility could be prohibitive.

“I have a responsibility as an elected official to act on behalf of all ratepayers and some of them are very prudent on how we spend their dollars and I want to make sure that if we are going to make an investment in this area, that it’s not just a short-term and that there is a recoverable down the road,” Barr said, adding he admired the efforts of the RUCB to bring the issue of recycling to the forefront.