Among the impacts of COVID-19 come environmental concerns, though it’s not all a bad-news story where waste management is concerned.
Paul Lyons, waste management manager for the Town of Okotoks, said over 10 months from January to October 2020 there was a nine per cent increase in garbage tonnage over 2019 levels, a two per cent increase in curbside recycling and an 11 per cent increase in organics collection.
In addition, the Town’s leaf and yard waste program saw an increase of 26 per cent collected outside the Eco Centre.
“Typically grass and leaves is what is included in that tonnage,” said Lyons. “We believe that was most likely due to more people being home during the pandemic.”
He said the rise in residential garbage collection can also be attributed to more people being at home for work and school.
There could also have been some materials thrown away when the Eco Centre was closed or while the clothing collection program was on hiatus, he said.
“We encouraged residents to put it aside, the program has now reopened but I suspect that some of that material going in the garbage could have been clothing, material residents were just not prepared to hold onto during the time we shut down that aspect of the program,” said Lyons.
However, the uptick in recycling and organics collection was a positive outcome, with more residents putting their blue and green bins to use while at home.
“If we can continue to increase organics then it would be good for us,” said Lyons.
He said some strategies have been developed to encourage more use of the green program, with larger 240L carts available for a “nominal fee.”
“We’ve seen numerous residents doing that,” said Lyons. “We encourage them to continue doing that and participating in that aspect of the diversion program.”
Residents should be commended for their careful use of the blue bins as well, he said. While the increase in materials collected wasn’t huge at two per cent, it’s notable that processors have not reported any increase in contamination.
“It’s a good news story for residents that their commitment to using the carts and using them correctly is being noted, because we would either have received information from our processors or be penalized as the end result of increased contamination in the carts,” said Lyons.
He said the increasing levels of diversion are also good news for the landfill, because more green and blue cart collection means less waste being hauled to the dump.
Joe Angevine, manager of the Foothills Regional Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre, said through the pandemic the amount of waste coming in hasn’t increased significantly.
“Our tonnage actually dropped at first because the commercial waste went down with all the businesses closed down or online,” said Angevine.
However, there was more traffic as many people staying home opted to clean out garages, basements or backyards.
“It was a lot of small loads that people were self-hauling,” said Angevine. “That was kind of an interesting shift. People were just doing house projects and home renovations and whatever else while they were at home, so there was an increase in that type of waste.”
When the first relaunch began in May he said everything picked back up and it became business-as-usual for the landfill.
But while tonnage returned to normal levels, he said that’s not necessarily indicative of less volume. With people discarding more single-use items like gloves, paper towels and masks, he said it’s possible the actual amount of garbage increased while its weight remained the same.
“We don’t see it because it comes in bags, but I’m assuming there’s a lot more plastic being thrown out because people are wearing gloves, they’re throwing away masks, all these things,” said Angevine. “There probably is more waste, single-use stuff, but it doesn’t affect our tonnage because it’s such lightweight material.”
Of more concern, he said, is the material that doesn’t make it to the landfill. There has been a noticeable increase in litter around Okotoks and other towns, he said.
”Before COVID people were starting to be concerned about litter and single-use plastics and stuff like that, and then COVID comes and all that goes out the window,” said Angevine. “And of course nobody wants to touch the masks because people have been breathing into them and then they drop it and it just sits on the ground, nobody wants to touch it, so that’s kind of frustrating.”
Hussain Akbar, an owner and director of Motion Fitness, echoed concerns about the amount of litter suddenly found around town with discarded masks in parking lots and along roadsides.
“It’s very disturbing to see the amount of those blue masks that are just all over Okotoks, Calgary, everywhere,” said Akbar. “It’s just sad to see.”
He said there is bound to be an impact on the landfill from the number of disposable masks heading out in addition to increased waste from cleaning protocols in businesses and homes.
Motion Fitness has been shut down since Dec. 13 due to enhanced public health orders, but when the gym is open members are encouraged to wipe down equipment thoroughly with paper towels and disinfectant spray, he said. While it results in more paper towel hitting the garbage can and more lightweight bags being taken out to the dumpster, he said the environmental impact of the previous towel-and-spray system wasn’t much better with onsite washers and dryers and detergent used.
“There is some waste increase, of course – people are wiping down their equipment more than they used to, whereas before you would have the odd member who wouldn’t actually follow all protocols,” said Akbar. “But because of the heightened nature of COVID-19 everyone wants to wipe down their equipment.”
He said many other health clubs had already converted to paper towels with their spray bottles prior to the pandemic, so the increase didn’t come from every gym suddenly changing over.
It’s more likely the result of members being more diligent about wiping down their equipment and being hyper aware of their responsibility in the gym, he said.
Sometimes this leads to other issues – like people taking more than one paper towel per use or taking extra precautions by wiping down equipment before and after use, he said.
“There’s more usage there as well,” said Akbar. “And now you’re even going to see people wipe down the dumbbell handles, where that was never the case before, ever. No one would ever wipe down dumbbell handles.
“I think the increase is just the member awareness. They’re just using more.”
