In a city where most students share a house with anywhere from one to 10 people, surviving on Kingston’s limit of two garbage bags per household is a challenge. If you recycle, it doesn’t have to be.
“Maximize your use of recycling,” suggests John Giles, manager of solid waste for the City of Kingston.
“Most materials are recyclable.” Because each household is limited to two garbage bags per pickup, students living in a house with several housemates may feel the pressure to cut down the amount of waste they produce.
Giles suggests recycling as many items as possible, using a backyard composter for food scraps and avoiding purchasing items with excessive packaging.
“Choose to leave packaging behind where you can,” he said. “For example, if you buy a pair of shoes, leave the box in the store.”
Recycling is an easy way out of spending the fee for extra bags. Kingston uses a two-tier recycling system: blue and grey boxes are collected on alternating weeks.
The grey box is used for recycling paper products and plastic bags. Blue boxes get all other recyclables, including metal cans, rigid plastic containers and glass bottles and jars.
To determine what type of plastic an item is, look for the number encoded on the bottom of the product. In the blue box, numbers two, four, five, six, and certain types of number-one plastics are recyclable. Number three and seven plastics, or any item containing a combination of the two, should be placed with regular garbage.
As of Oct. 1, the city won’t accept number-one plastics without screw tops in the blue box because they contain an extra additive that makes them undesirable for recycling into new materials. When items are recycled, they’re sold to manufacturers who reuse the materials. Because of this additive, number-one plastics such as “clamshell” containers used for foods like eggs and muffins can’t be resold.
Beginning in either spring or fall 2008, the city will introduce a separate organic waste program. Residents will have a bin to place organic waste that will be collected weekly like regular garbage.
“You’ll still have recycling, but garbage will be split,” Giles said. “Some will be going to landfill, and the organics portion of the garbage, which will go to a composting facility.”
The city is soliciting proposals for a facility where they can dispose the compost. The company that takes the organic waste could use it for fertilizer or combine it with topsoil. Giles said the composting will cut down the amount of harmful methane gas released into the air by regular landfills.
“With the composting site, all of your materials go in one end and out the other, and you haven’t filled it up like you do a landfill. You continually reuse that facility; you’re not filling it.”
Kingstonians can choose to compost excess food scraps at home, a system Giles said is the most cost-effective and eco-friendly. You can buy your own composter at the Kingston Area Recycling Centre on Lappan’s Lane or at a hardware store.
When used properly, a backyard composter can fortify garden soil and cut down on waste going into a household’s garbage bags.
“It’s simple,” said Amy Paauw, a communications officer for the city of Kingston. “You take food scraps from your kitchen, dump it in the composter, keep it moist, and turn it regularly.”
To be most effective, composters must be placed in a sunny location, and contain the right amount of nitrogen (kitchen scraps, grass clippings), carbon (leaves, wood chips, peat moss), water and air. Meat, bones and fats such as cheese and salad dressing shouldn’t go in a home-based composter.
Composting requires diligence, but Giles said the payoff is well worth it.
“It’s the most cost effective way of dealing with waste, and it’s dealt with in your own backyard,” he said. “You’re saving money, and [the soil] gives you a valuable product.”
If excess garbage is unavoidable, residents can purchase a tag for $2 to attach to any extra garbage bags they want picked up. Bag tags are available in the AMS office in the Lower Ceilidh of the JDUC.
“No more than two bags will be picked up,” Giles said. “If they do generate that extra garbage, the reality is that you may have to buy a bag tag.”
If you’re looking to throw out an old fridge, couch, or other large articles after moving day, it isn’t as easy as putting them by the curb.
For a fee, residents can take large articles and excess garbage to the Kingston East Landfill. Disposal fees are $110 per tonne, per month, with a minimum fee of $15 per month. The landfill is located on Concession Road 4, and is open from Tuesday to Saturday, 8:30 a.m to 4 p.m.
For more information on garbage disposal and recycling in Kingston, visit cityofkingston.ca/residents/waste/.
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