Littering has become an on-going issue in BWG and council is ready to make some changes.
In the last BWG council meeting held on Aug.6, councillors referred to other towns who have adapted new by-laws and programs that deter potential litterbugs.
In their council meeting held on July 8th, New Tecumseth council put forward a motion to investigate the updating of their current littering by-law, which hasn’t been updated since 1993.
BWG council was all in favour of the motion and imposing harsher penalties to offenders in Bradford as well.
“So we mimic the changes… I’d like consistency throughout the area. Make sure we are on side with our neighbours,” Leduc said about following in the footsteps of New Tecumseth and other neighbouring towns.
Coun. Mark Contois suggested working with local stores and restaurants and proposed sponsoring additional garbage cans.
“Plastics, garbage, everything that’s being dumped over the last three years – it’s ridiculous,” he said.
“We have to do something. It’s the future generation that are going to pay for this.”
He urged all municipalities to come together “and make sure we do as much as possible to reduce the litter.”
Currently the penalty for littering in Bradford can be anywhere up to $5,000, but seldom are the fines issued and residents continue to litter because as Coun. Gary Lamb noted it is difficult to catch people in the act.
“Trying to make a littering charge stick is very difficult… unless somebody sees somebody actually littering it’s very hard to make it stick,” he explained.
Leduc suggested it might be easier to catch litterers in action, with all of the dash-cams and videos around – and that releasing the video might be an idea.
“We’re going to shame you into picking that up,” he said.
Coun. Ferragine pressed for action.
“At the same time, we can’t just continue what we’re doing,” Ferragine said.
He made reference to the United Kingdom, where every city has an anti-littering campaign and signage.
“We do need to put something together, like stiffer fines… We got to do something.”
He noted that beer bottles are hardly an issue because of their return program that is in place.
“Why can’t we do it with other plastics?” he questioned.
Ferragine noted that other municipalities, including Halton Region and Georgina have instituted a deposit-return program for plastics.
“I think we should support it. I think we should jump on this and go to the province,” he said.
Contois agreed, noting that in Calgary, the homeless are paid for picking up cans and bottles, and returning them to a depot.
“The streets were immaculate. The streets were just sparkling,” he said of the city.
Deposit and return for single use containers is something that has been established in other provinces, including Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
“It’s being done in other places in Canada. Why are we so far behind?” asked Ferragine.
Ontario has recently called upon David Lindsay, Special Advisor on Recycling and Plastic Waste to help address the problem of plastic pollution. He is currently working on a report to present to Rod Phillips, Minister of the Environment on how to address the issue of plastic waste and litter.
A news release on the Ontario government website, Lindsay says:
"Having stakeholders come together to identify concerns and find solutions will be integral to reinvigorating the province's Blue Box Program and solving the problem of plastic litter and waste."
Council passed a resolution supporting both the New Tecumseth By-law, and a resolution passed by Halton Hills and the Town of Georgina, calling on the province to review and implement a deposit-return program for all single use plastic, aluminum and metal drink containers – and look at extended producer responsibility for all packaging.
