Listen to daily commentary from program director Murray Wood
Murray Wood breaks down the results of Monday's federal election, and says western Canada is waiting anxiously to see if...
The next step in changes to city waste diversion for the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sector (ICI) has been passed through to council.
On Monday morning, the Standing Policy Committee on Environment, Utilities and Corporate Services passed the recommended option to a future council meeting.
That would create the next steps in implementing an approach of having separate bins for businesses and organizations. The bins needed would be garbage, recycling and — if the business falls under the correct criteria — an organics compost bin.
Keith Moen, executive director of the North Saskatoon Business Association (NSBA), supported the change at the committee meeting Monday.
“It’s been clear that the feedback provided by businesses and other stakeholders has been incorporated into the recommendations made during each stage of the process, resulting in solutions that work for the entire community,” he said during his presentation.
“It combines flexibility of supply, and contracting of recycling organics services with the level of simplicity that business owners will be able to appreciate and incorporate.”
Coun. Mairin Loewen asked city staff about the possibility of organizations such as Saskatoon’s schools, along with larger organizations, also being incorporated into the organics compost side of the future bylaw.
Amber Weckworth, the city education and environmental performance manager, said talks have started with Saskatoon school boards.
“We have early plans, and early conversations started with the school boards to develop a pilot program,” she said during the committee meeting.
Weckworth said the organizations and businesses that would need the compost bins would be “anyone who is serving food,” and anyone producing “yard and garden waste.”
“We also plan to look at the role of the city in delivering organics to the sector. There may be opportunity for us to actually deliver some of those services, whether that be to smaller businesses, through some increased drop-off program, or if it is actually in expanding our green cart program to certain stakeholders,” she said.
Weckworth said all amended bylaw changes wouldn’t take effect until 2021.
The recommendation was passed unanimously by committee, and its members also said they’re hoping to get the Saskatoon Environmental Advisory Committee’s (SEAC) input on the file as well. SEAC can now either submit feedback or additional information if it deems it necessary.
