I am a student at UOIT, and have spent some time in the downtown area; as a student of environmental science, I have noticed that there aren’t any recycling depots managed by the city in the downtown area. I would this to be subject to study for a case.
I have researched a few examples of recycling depots various areas, such as Stratford, Calgary and Northford. The most relevant to Oshawa for this case is Calgary. Calgary has an excellent recycling program, with an equidistant placement of 50+ recycling depots throughout the city. This, along with a composting program run in the city proper, has reduced their waste production by 20% (www.calgary.ca, 2012).
I also noticed that Oshawa has a diversion program aiming for a waste reduction of 70%, while currently being 51% (www.oshawa.ca, 2012). With a program that emulated Calgary’s, Oshawa should easily be able to reduce its environmental impact, plus improve its waste disposal costs. This is important with Toronto’s large waste production in the area.
I’m not sure if economic stimulus is needed for such a program to be underwent, but I researched government grants for environmental programs, and have found a number of interesting possibilities: for instance, the Green Municipal Fund, which allows for 50% (up to $155,000) of any green movement’s costs to be covered by funding towards a plan in a community to improve environmental sustainability (www.fcm.ca, 2012). Also, the Continuous Improvement Funds program, which offers up to $10 million for green improvement (www.wdo.ca, 2012). I found both of these programs in one hour, so there has got to be more out there.
This would be beneficial in improving the situation downtown; there are plenty of waste disposal units downtown, so Oshawa could place recycling units downtown similar to those in Toronto, with options like can recycling, paper recycling and composting. If these were placed in the same area as the waste disposal, costs and carbon impact would be reduced- less stops means less idling, if these stations were to be managed by city garbage trucks.
Please consider the following for the case, as well:
• Composting companies like The Compost Drum,
• Butt Stops, to allow for less discarded uncompostable waste,
• Awareness programs about the multitude of green spaces,
• Awareness programs for reducing, reusing, and recycling.
Thank you for your consideration, I expect that there will be some positive improvement on the subject, and I hope that I have in some way helped.
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