With the clock on the city’s landfill ticking and new rules on waste diversion coming from the province, Londoners are going to be asked to talk a lot about trash over the next two years.

A surprise topic back on the agenda: the scuttled green-bin program that could cost a lot less, or be replaced by new technology.

Why Waste? is the name city staff have given so far to a massive public engagement proposal that is heading to politicians next week and could start in a small form as early as this month.

“We are literally going to be talking about everything, how all the pieces fit together,” said Jay Stanford, the director of solid waste for the city.

If council approves, city staff will start reaching out to Londoners and others about two long-term strategies, resource recovery and waste disposal.

That second matter, disposing of waste, is a little more time sensitive because the city’s landfill has space for only about eight more years’ worth of Londoners’ garbage, Stanford said.

If the landfill on Manning Drive in south London is built up, or out — some of the ideas that could be discussed during public engagement — it could last another 25 years.

Connected to waste disposal, of course, is waste diversion — or resource recovery, as engineers call it — and that will be a key part of the two-year discussion, Stanford said.

The province is developing some new carrots and sticks to get municipalities to reduce the amount of waste heading to landfills.

In new legislation passed in June, and in a strategy being finalized, the province plans to shift the costs of blue box recycling from taxpayers to producers.

That carrot could give municipalities the ability to use the savings on other environmental measures, Stanford said.

The stick comes from tougher rules to get municipalities to reach higher diversion of residential waste from landfills.

London sits at 45 per cent and has some work to do to reach what the provincial target of 60 per cent at the moment, but potentially higher in the future.

One of the factors preventing London from reaching higher diversion percentages is the lack of a green bin program to handle organic material, rejected several times in the past over the costs, about $12 million to launch and $4.5 million a year to operate.

Aside from the possibility of using recycling savings for green bins, city staff want to talk with Londoners about options to green bin systems.

“Are there other technologies that may achieve the same thing at lower cost or is there better technology?” Stanford said.

Edmonton turns its organic material into fuel, something London could consider, he said.

“There are new and emerging technologies beginning to show promise.”

The discussions would determine as well if London should join forces with area municipalities for future waste disposal or recovery facilities.

At Tuesday’s civic works committee meeting, politicians will be asked to endorse some principles for developing the city’s long-term recovery and waste disposal strategies and a framework for the community engagement plan.

That engagement could include online interactions, open houses and meetings with the public and focus groups, including indigenous groups.

rrichmond@postmedia.com

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