For years the Government of Nunavut has been aware of the need to upgrade its landfills and get serious about waste management. A 2011 study of fourteen Nunavut landfills conducted by the Yellowknife-based consulting firm Arktis Solutions and commissioned by the Nunavut government found that not one comes close to meeting accepted standards for waste management. In many, harmful pollutants which could be diverted from the landfills through the implementation of a limited Nunavut-wide recycling program are leaching into the soil, flowing into waterways, and, through widespread illegal burning, becoming airborne, eventually being taken up in land and ocean food webs. Upgrading all landfills, however, is a costly enterprise, one that Nunavut cannot presently afford:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2011/11/06/north-nunavut-landfills.html

     In 2010, after a three-year pilot project run in Kugluktuk, Iqaluit, and Rankin Inlet to assess the feasibility of implementing a Nunavut-wide recycling program, the government concluded that even this would not be worth the effort:

http://env.gov.nu.ca/sites/default/files/Solid Waste Management in Nunavut.pdf

     Surprisingly, it estimated the cost of starting such a program to be $18.2 million. But this is not necessarily true. With prudent central planning and the employment of a single coordinator in each community to promote and implement the diversion of the most toxic household and business-generated waste from landfills to southbound sea cans for proper disposal, the government could take an important first step towards a solution for a fraction of the stated cost.

     For the good of the environment and the health of all people in Nunavut, please make your voice heard: sign this petition.

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