For those of you who weren’t able to take part in The Way We Green public forum in City Hall on November 3 and 4, we’ve created some blog posts about the six sustainability issues that we discussed during those two days. Have a look at the policy ideas we raised in the White Paper and talked about at the forum and give us your feedback. Are they good ideas? Do you disagree with them? Will they work? Have we forgotten something? Please let us know.
The current situation:
Edmontonians continue to generate more waste per household than many other cities. Most of Edmonton’s non-residential waste is not recycled. Edmonton’s ecological footprint (developed land area/per capita) is 3.2 times the global average.
Possible policy objectives:
Give us your feedback on these possible policy objectives that could be recommended to City Council.
- Non-residential sectors achieve the same waste diversion rate achieved by Edmonton’s residential sector.
- Edmontonians generate low levels of residential waste; on par with their waste-efficient peer cities.
- Edmonton’s ecological footprint is reduced.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Option 2 is of no real value because we are not competing with other cities. We must aim for an absolute reduction in our footprint. If we feel we must compete (i.e. be on a par with other cities), then let us be the leader and have the smallest, and diminishing, footprint.
In Anielski’s paper on the EF of Edmonton, he stated that our EF was quite a bit lower around 20 years ago (I forget the exact figure, but it was maybe 50% of our present EF). Edmonton lived quite well at that time. We should aim, at the minimum, to get back to where we were. It would be a good start.
I think Edmonton should aim to reduce not only it’s waste from non-residential sectors, but also improve by further lowering the levels of residential waste. I would only support a policy that targets lowering both sources of waste. I further think the polluter-pays principal is a good one and should be agressively pursued, especially with for-profit-enterprises that save money by externalizing their environmental costs. Medium and large businesses should be penalized based on the amount of waste they produce, thus creating incentive for them to operately differently. Fines and taxes should be levied for their waste generation. The cost of implementing such a regulatory program could likely be offset by the income gained from polluters who either cannot or choose not to respect the waste limits established.