Let's Talk

Solid Waste Management Practices

How Does CSC Measure Up

A Survey on Recycling and Composting Versus Landfilling

BY Paul Provost, MSc, National Coordinator, Environmental Protection Programs

In the last edition of Let’s Talk, I published an article that stressed the importance of waste weighing as the starting point for ecologically sound solid waste management. Since then, a survey of waste management practices has been carried out in all Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) institutions. The 100 percent response rate garnered by this survey indicates a clear interest in this vital and ever-timely aspect of environmental management. The numerous responses provide a clear picture of past achievements, as well as the current situation and the challenges we still face in the area of waste recovery. The following is a brief overview of the survey findings.

Fifteen Years of Progress

Around the time recycling and composting initiatives were springing up in Canadian communities, CSC undertook its first in-depth study of the waste generated at its institutions. (This was the 1991 environmental pilot project carried out at Dorchester and Westmorland institutions in New Brunswick.) The study showed that, on average, these institutions produced waste equivalent to 2 kg/occupant¹/day. Fully 50 percent of this waste consisted of compostable materials and 30-40 percent (or 0.6 to 0.8 kg/occupant/day) consisted of recyclables. The quantity of waste now being produced, according to the 2005-2006 survey data, is approximately 1.4 kg/occupant/day, which is a reduction of 30 percent. This progress is the result of institutional recycling programs, coupled with composting and reduction at source. But, is there still room for improvement?

How to Improve our Recycling Methods

The results of our survey show that only 8 percent (0.14 kg/occupant/day) of the waste produced in our institutions is currently being recycled. The best results in this area (approximately 10 percent) are in Atlantic, Quebec and Prairie regions. Is this poor showing the result of relaxation of good practices or have recycling opportunities actually been exhausted? The majority of respondents attributed poor performance and lack of involvement to inadequate human, budgetary and infrastructural resources. To improve the situation, established recycling measures will need to be consolidated and new projects that promote the 4Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle and recover) must be supported.

The Challenges of Composting

Based on the survey responses, 11 percent of the waste produced in our institutions (or 0.19 kg/occupant/day) is currently being composted. The weighted results indicate that the regions that performed the best in this area are Atlantic (29 percent) and Prairie (17 percent) regions. A third of all CSC institutions operate their own composting systems, while another third sort and ship their compostable waste to outside composting facilities. Given that, by weight, 50 percent of the waste being generated is organic in nature, there is still room for improvement. The justifications used to explain this poor showing are the same as those mentioned above concerning recycling. Improvement in this area will require more rigorous sorting and collection methods for compostable waste and an increase in the number of institutions with access to this form of waste recovery.

Landfilling: the Antithesis of the 4Rs

Landfilling, a practice as old as humanity, remains the most popular form of waste disposal. Fully 80 percent of all waste produced by our institutions finds its way to landfill sites. In one respect at least this traditional waste management method is hard to beat: the average corporate cost of landfilling (per metric tonne) is $73, and as little as $34 in the Quebec region. The current consensus is that it costs more to compost waste than to bury it. Moreover, the source-sorting requirements of recycling and composting are far more difficult to implement and to maintain than the “everything in the garbage can” approach. In the end, it is the environment that suffers the real consequences.

To conclude on a positive note, several respondents asserted that We can do better! I would add that We must do better! Our corporate experience in ecologically sound waste management has shown that Where there’s a will there’s way. What do you think? ♦

¹ Occupant = number of inmates + 1⁄3 of personnel.