It was reported that Regina city council voted
unanimously in favour of a biweekly winter garbage collection schedule on the
night of September 25, 2017, a dramatic change from a semi-weekly schedule.
I.
Situation
The new
biweekly garbage pickup plan, which will affect about 64,000 households, is
expected to save the city approximately $132,000. This cost-saving measure was
prompted after the grants-in-lieu program was cut in the last provincial budget[i]. It will take
effect starting in November and run until March 2018. Home businesses and
daycare centres are advised to use private waste pick-up if they have additional
trash. Affected childcare services like Ashley Longworth’s expressed concerns[ii]
about their diapers disposal and urged the municipal government to look
elsewhere to save money though they understood that the city needed to find ways
to do so. Many individuals also echoed their dissatisfaction as the service is
cut down while the property tax keeps increasing steadily.
According
to data revealed by the City, brown bins are 60% full on average when they are
picked up, and 14% of their contents are recyclable. If there are special
circumstances to accommodate additional need of garbage space, Karen Gasmo,
executive director of transportation and utilities, said that the council had
to move to allow for special accommodations like that, and there was no agenda
to discuss that on the same day of the voting[iii].
II.
Issues
As
put in the first part, the volume of waste cannot be predicted or controlled if
you have got more people including kids, and adding brown bins or providing a
no-fee entry into the landfill may increase the present cost and offset the
service reduction plan. Furthermore, there is the question of accountability to
the residents for the reduction of service while constantly increasing the property tax by at least 3% yearly (please note that the water rate has quadrupled since 1999 as reported by some residents). In addition, people may want to take some of the dumped furniture at the
landfill though it is not allowed to enter the lot under present rules. People
who bring garbage to the landfill have to pay a cost of about 5-20 dollars depending
on the weight and nature of the garbage.
III.
Other
Potential Solutions
Though
it is hard to predict and control the volume of garbage for some businesses and
families, there are ways to reduce the garbage in a long term:
l A more detailed breakdown of family garbage
items like recyclables, flammable garbage and inflammable garbage (like in
Japan)
l A public education on waste
categorization and management
l Adopting the burning method (like in
Singapore and Sweden) and the biological compost or anaerobic digestion method (like
in Britain and Germany) to turn garbage into power or fertilizer while reducing
the volume of garbage
l Encouraging the donation and exchange
of second-hand furniture in the neighborhood and opening up an area for free
pickup before the landfill entrance with a specified time to clear away the
area once a week using a conveyance belt on the ground
IV.
Conclusion
Though
presently brown bins are 60% full on average and residents need to make a
better use of the bins, there are other ways to treat the garbage. As
immigrants are increasing and businesses are growing, curtailing on the use of
garbage bins may be effective temporarily but may aggravate the problem in the
future. Borrowing from Japan and Sweden may help Regina cope with the garbage
problem in the new age.
我们应该对里贾纳的垃圾怎么办？
据报，里贾纳市议会2017年9月25日夜间一致投票赞成，将由冬季每周两次突然转变为每两周一次收集垃圾计划。
一、现状
预计新的每两周一次的垃圾收集计划将会影响约64,000户家庭，但也将为市政府节省约132,000加元。在上一个省级预算中，替代补助计划被削减后，这种节约成本的措施得到了推动。它将从11月开始生效，直到2018年3月。家庭企业和托儿中心如果有额外的垃圾，政府建议其使用私人垃圾回收。尽管他们明白市政府急需找到解决办法，受影响的儿童保育服务人士如Ashley Longworth表示担心他们的尿布处理，并敦促市政府在别处寻找省钱的办法。许多个人也反映了他们的不满，因为服务被削减了，而物业税却仍然持续增加。
据市政府透露的数据显示，棕色垃圾桶的采收率平均为60％，其中14％的物料可回收利用。如果有特殊情况需要增加垃圾筒的需求，交通运输和公共事业部执行董事卡伦·莫斯莫说：市议会不得不通过一个动议同意采取这样的特殊方式，但是并没有在投票的同一天讨论该议程。
二、问题
如第一部分所述，如果你有更多的人，包括孩子，你将无法预测或控制废物量。而添加棕色垃圾筒或提供免费进入垃圾填埋场，则可能会增加现有成本并抵消服务减少计划。此外，在j在近年每年地税上涨至少3%（据有关居民反映，水费自1999年上涨了三倍）的同时，对居民减少服务，也存在一个问责的问题。此外，人们可能希望在垃圾填埋场拿一些不要的家具，但现行规定不允许人们进入该地段。将垃圾带到垃圾填埋场的人员必须根据垃圾的重量和性质支付约5-20美元的费用。
三、其他潜在解决方案
虽然很难预测和控制一些企业和家庭的垃圾量，但却有一些长期减少垃圾的方法：
l 家庭废弃物品如可回收物，易燃垃圾和非易燃垃圾的详细分类（如在日本）
l 废物分类及管理的公共教育
l 采用燃烧方式（如新加坡和瑞典）和生物堆肥或厌氧消化法（如英国和德国）将垃圾转化为电力或肥料，同时减少垃圾的数量
l 鼓励邻里二手家具的捐赠和交换，并在规定的时间内，在垃圾填埋场入口处开放免费领取区域，每周一次使用地面上的传送带清理该区域
四、结论
虽然目前棕色的垃圾桶平均只达到60％的利用，以及居民需要更好地利用垃圾桶，但还有其他方式来处理垃圾。随着移民和企业越来越多，限制垃圾箱的使用，可能会暂时有效，但将来可能会加剧问题。借鉴日本和瑞典的做法可能有助于里贾纳处理新时代的垃圾问题。
