City engaging public on waste reduction strategies for London

There’s going to be a whole lot of trash talk in London over the next two years.

That’s because the city is embarking on a public engagement process on waste reduction.

It started on Wednesday with two open houses, and will continue with two more Thursday at the Lambeth Community Centre.

Jay Stanford, director of environment, fleet and solid waste with the city, tells AM980 more about what they’ll be talking to residents about.

“Waste reduction, waste recovery, and of course we’re also looking at the potential expansion of our landfill site,” said Stanford. “We only have eight to nine years left in our landfill and we need space for those materials we can’t recycle or compost.”

A green bin program will also be part of the discussions as a potential way of helping along waste reduction, Stanford said.

“That is a program that will be discussed again, and as well there are some new and emerging technologies that handle food scraps in a different method that need to be brought to the forefront to have dialogue on those to determine whether they’re in fact in the future for London.”

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The provincial government wants cities to divert as much as 60 per cent of their waste away from landfills, but London is currently at 45 per cent.