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At Civic Works Committee and we are taking one step closer toward 60% Waste Diversion AND Green Bins in #ldnont. Implementation is set to begin in 2021!! pic.twitter.com/zfnfZa3udL — Tanya Park (@tanneramma) September 25, 2018

Jay Stanford, the city’s trash czar, noted that conversation at city hall about a green bin program has been going on for 20 years. To emphasize the point, Hubert held up a London Free Press front page announcing a green-bin pilot program. It was dated Jan. 19, 2010 — prompting some ribbing from fellow councillors about Hubert’s recycling practices.

Dubbed the 60 per cent Waste Diversion Action Plan, the document was drawn up in response to provincial targets for trash reduction. London is the only major city in Ontario without a green bin program. The plan that will include it is to be phased in between 2019 and 2022.

But Ward 5 Coun. Phil Squire threw cold water on the positive comments from the likes of Park.

“We’re not saving the planet yet,” he said, adding people shouldn’t be congratulating themselves at this point.

“We really have no choice to do this” since the targets for waste diversion are mandated by Queen’s Park, Squire added.

He said the plan will become a reality only through “human action” and those Londoners who say they support a green bin program can’t be “bystanders.” The target won’t be met unless all Londoners make the “lifestyle choice” to participate in diverting their household waste, he said.

“It starts with the individual,” agreed committee chair Ward 10’s Virginia Ridley.

Ward 1 Coun. Michael Van Holst said he would prefer a voluntary opt-in. “That’s the direction that I would be into,” he said.

He said paying an additional $36 would be a problem for city residents on a fixed income. “As more people opted in, then we would be able to lower that cost,” he said.

Van Holst said he agrees with the goals of the plan, but added it shouldn’t be council’s only priority. “In London, we have got a lot of other problems that are important,” he said.

danbrown@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/DanatLFPress