By James Matthews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Dysart is considering opening its landfills to a non-profit group that may want to collect recyclable alcohol containers as a means to generate revenue.

John Watson, the township’s environmental manager, said Ontario has a pair of options when it comes to complementary deposit return programs to divert empty beer, wine, and spirit containers from landfills.

Residents can return beer cans and bottles as well as bottle caps and boxes sold at The Beer Store back to that business.

There’s also the Ontario Deposit Return Program which covers all wine, spirit, and cooler containers over 100 millilitres sold at LCBO stores and Ontario winery retail stores, and beer containers over 100 millilitres sold outside The Beer Store system. That includes tetra and bag-in-box packs.

In both instances, consumers return acceptable materials to The Beer Store for a refund on the container’s deposit.

Dysart encourages consumers to drop-off their empty beer, wine and spirit containers at The Beer Store for a refund of their deposit. 

If consumers drop-off empty beer, wine and spirit containers at one of Dysart’s waste disposal sites, landfill attendants can choose to manage those containers on their own time, or can direct users to place empty beer, wine, and spirit containers in Recycling for Containers.

“Back when Dysart was financially responsible for funding the hauling and processing of Blue Box materials, it would have been cost prohibitive to include those items in Recycling for Containers as they would have led to increased hauling and processing costs, especially as glass is a heavy material,” Watson said.

Dysart no longer funds the hauling and processing of Blue Box materials so adding those containers to the Blue Box will have no bearing on operational costs.

Watson said that, as part of Ontario Blue Box regulations, empty beer, wine, and spirit containers are not acceptable materials. But they are not considered contamination either.

“So we wouldn’t currently face any penalties for including them,” he said.

Municipal environmental staff proposed options for council to consider on how to manage such recyclable containers at landfill sites.

The first option is to no longer accept any of those containers at Dysart landfills.

“In that option, anyone bringing those containers to Dysart landfills would be told they aren’t accepted and the customer would be directed to return them directly to The Beer Store,” he said.

Another idea is to have containers disposed of in Recycling for Containers area at a landfill. Non-profit groups could establish take-back solutions for empty beer, wine, and spirit containers.

Council could consider issuing a request for Expressions of Interest for a non-profit group to operate a take-back program at all five of Dysart’s landfills.

Watson said the request would specify the expected scope of work, health and safety requirements, insurance provision for Commercial General Liability Coverage not less than $5 million, and a set term for the program.

The Township of Algonquin Highlands operates four waste disposal sites. At the Dorset Transfer Station, that township has a formal agreement with a non-profit organization to manage such containers. 

At the other sites, landfill attendants can choose to manage those containers on their own time or can direct users to place the containers in the Recycling for Containers.

Minden Hills sought expressions of interest in January for non-profit organizations to manage containers at its four waste disposal sites. 

Four expressions were received, and Minden Hills will be entering into agreements with Snowflake Meadows Rescue Center and Walkabout Farms Therapeutic Riding Association at the Scotch Line Landfill; U-Links and FEEL at the Ingoldsby Transfer Station; and Minden Hills Firefighters Association at the Little Gull and Iron Mine transfer stations.

A fourth option described by Watson is for Dysart to maintain how alcoholic beverage containers have always been managed at landfills. Attendants can manage containers on their own time or direct users to place empty containers in the Recycling for Containers area.

“I can’t see anybody bidding on all five sites,” Mayor Murray Fearrey said of a non-profit group establishing a take-back program.

“It seems to me it’s working the way it is,” Fearrey said. “But if there’s a not-for-profit that could benefit from it, I think they probably should be given the opportunity.”

Councillor Pat Casey said he favours a local group benefitting from the returns from recycling the materials.

“Let’s not over-complicate this thing because it’s just pulling beer bottles out of the recycling,” he said.

Watson said any third party on a landfill site is going to require a scope of work to outline their responsibilities.

“We need to protect ourselves and the tax base from any liability that can occur on site with people maybe acting unsafely,” Watson said.

“I agree with that,” Casey said. “But do we have that now with our own guys doing it?”

“All of the current staff are trained in health and safety,” Watson said.

“And they get the beer bottles to the store and everything?” Casey said.

“They do that on their time with their own personal vehicles,” Watson said.

“John, they don’t do that,” Casey said. “They sort everything on Dysart’s time. Let’s keep that square.”

“I can say going into sites on the days when the sites are closed to the public, they (staff) are definitely in on their own time doing this,” said Watson.

Coun. Nancy Wood-Roberts asked who is liable for attendants going into the landfill site when it is closed should a mishap occur?

Council decided to have staff come up with a request for expressions of interest from non-profit groups to handle the recyclable containers at landfills.