PUBLIC GARBAGE MEETING IN ELMIRA ON OCT. 23/12

Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carys this story "Where will our garbage go?". Essentially the Region of Waterloo wish to hear from the public in regards to waste disposal after the local Erb St. Landfill is full, allegedly in another twenty years. It seems to me that back in the 70's this Landfill only had a life expectancy of 20 -25 years. Some of the time stretching has been due to waste diversion/recycling and some has been due to simple physical expansion of the perimeter of the Landfill. Regardless its' location was never a particularily good one simply due to the proximity to the St.Agatha aquifer. This was realized of course after leachate unsurprisingly was found to be leaving the site. Since that time there have been engineering attempts to collect the leachate but it would have been superior to design the landfill properly in the first place.

There are a series of public meetings planned with the closest one being at the Lions Hall in Elmira on Tuesday October 23/12. It is certainly fair to say that the Region of Waterloo have made huge strides in their handling and reduction of garbage needing disposal/burying. That being said I truly wonder if these public sessions are really for the purposes stated. Maybe as much as anything they are to educate the public that garbage is an issue and that we all are part of the solution. I expect to attend the one in Elmira and hope to see some innovative plans for future waste disposal including of course enhanced Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.