Input Sought on Proposed Solid Waste Changes

The government is proposing changes to its solid waste regulations to divert more materials from landfills and help municipalities with growing waste and recycling costs.

People can have their say over the next two months on proposed changes, contained in Revising Our Path Forward: A public discussion paper about solid waste regulation in Nova Scotia, released today, May 13.

"Nova Scotia has a reputation for innovation and success in handling our solid waste," said Environment Minister Randy Delorey. "The proposed changes are intended to build on our past success while meeting our mandate to divert even more products for reuse and recycling."

Some of the possible changes include more responsibility for producers to recycle their products, disposal bans for items including packaging, paper, compact fluorescent light bulbs and batteries, changes to the used tire management program, and improvements to enforcing solid waste regulations.

People are not expected to see many effects from the new measures, and municipalities could recoup most of their curbside recycling costs as producers take on the responsibility for recycling packaging and certain products.

Nova Scotia's solid waste-resource management regulations and strategy were released in 1995, and changes to the regulations have been made to ban materials, including electronics, from landfills.

The discussion paper and details on how to provide feedback, are at http://www.novascotia.ca/nse/waste/ . Input will be accepted until July 11.