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The city is spending about $300,000 a year to stockpile clamshell plastic packaging collected by its blue cart program, leading one member of council to wonder if the material should be buried or burned.

Last year, it cost nearly $300,000 to rent semi-trailers to house the hard-to-reprocess material, a practice dating back to September 2017.

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About 1,600 tonnes of the plastics now fill 100 storage units, said a city official.

That could bring the total spent to about $500,000, and the volume of plastics and the space required to store them at the Shepard Landfill site is growing at the pace of two to three trailer units a month.

Processors generally spurn the packaging due to contamination from labelling and adhesives.

Ward 1 Coun. Ward Sutherland said he was surprised to hear about the growing number of trailers packed with the bailed plastic and the cost, adding the city should consider cutting its losses.