The city of Fredericton is growing, and with it its production of waste.

Instead of the proposed increase to the size of the pile where garbage will be stored, up to 88 m (288foot), the city of Fredericton must:

1. Build a facility able to recycle and transforme the majority of the plastics, glass and other non-biodegradable materials into a finished product. Sorting and compacting piles of recyclables to be shipped for processing overseas should stop ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wFwsDWIrPk ). The technologies do exist to process such materials on site (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fkbQynfSyY ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHWYoDKYnQo

2. Implement city-wide organic waste collection and mandatory composting. Ultimately, install bioreactors that will transform organic waste into biogas and fertilizer. Very effective systems already exist (https://www.hyperthermics.com/

3. Install automated refundable bottle collection machines in major stores. Such programs already exist in other part of the country, why not here ( https://www.return-it.ca/

4. Reduce proprety tax proportionally to the reduction of garbage acheived by each household, compared to the average for the city. Currently all recycling is all based on people’s good will, and those willing to put the time and effort to reduce the volume of their garbage are too few to make a difference. Paying proportionally for their generated waste will make all citizens concerned with what ends up in the garbage, and encourage them to support second life options that exist (like for textile: https://advancedwastesolutions.ca/dressing-the-problem-textile-waste-in-canada/

5. Create a funding opportunity for students in the Fredericton region (e.g. New Brunswick College of Craft & Design, University of New Brunswick, Saint Thomas, Leo Hayes and FHS) to help inspire the implementation of bright ideas on use of waste as a resource.

6. Collect and recycle glass bottles and jars. Even if they are inert materials, they are still part of the problem. With glass being one of the few materials that can be recycled indefinitely it is a shame that none of this is happening in NB (https://www.garbagebinrentals.ca/waste-collection-removal-disposal-blog/570-how-do-we-recycle-glass-in-canada-all-the-answers-found-here.html

7. Install separate collection bins for batteries, electronics, light bulbs, paint and other hazardous recyclables throughout the city for more efficient triage of what is sent to the landfill. Currently a few programs do exist (like the one for end of life electronics https://www.recyclemyelectronics.ca/nb ). However, they are not given much visibility and few people are aware of them. In order to address this lack our students from the New Brunswick College of Craft & Design (or students from other local schools) could be funded to make specialized containers that will catch the eye, and make people notice and use those new bins.

A change in the way our waste is managed should happen today. We should not be increasing the height of our garbage pile in order to use it for 17 more years, until a new site needs to be developed for the same purpose. We have the responsibility to make the right choices today, and leave a more glorious legacy to our children than the proposed garbage pyramid.