KRG says yes to Nunavik’s waste management plan

A group of high school students from Tarsakallak school in Aupaluk helped fill a container with used tires from the community’s landfill earlier this year, which were shipped south by sealift to be recycled as part of a KRG-run pilot project. Under a new waste management plan, the region hopes that kind of project can be implemented region-wide. (PHOTO BY DOMINIC HAWLEY)

KUUJJUAQ — Kativik Regional Government councillors have voted to adopt a region-wide plan to implement recycling and compost programs across Nunavik.

Councillors passed a bylaw that will send Nunavik’s Residual Materials Management Plan on to Quebec’s National Assembly, where the bylaw will wait for final approval before coming into force.

The plan offers guidelines on a number of projects aimed at overseeing the disposal of plastic, hazardous waste, construction materials, vehicles, metal and tires — all measures to increase the lifespan of Nunavik’s landfills.

“Once we have an approved management plan, we’ll be able to apply for funding for different projects,” said Catherine Pinard, assistant director of lands and environment with the KRG’s department of renewable resources, environment, lands and parks, during KRG council meetings in Kuujjuaq last week.

“I think it’s a good project that will help us deal with a lot of the environment issues the region is facing.”

With no region-wide recycling program in place, almost all of the 12,000 tonnes of residual waste material generated across Nunavik’s 14 communities each year ends up in local landfills, where it is burned, buried or stored.

While a number of recycling programs have been launched in recent years, they remain local initiatives.

Under the plan, Nunavik will get about $4.3 million over the next five years to be targeted at landfill management, including the assignment of local landfill operators in each community.

Drawing from different pilot projects, the management plan outlines the selective collection of certain materials, like plastic, metal, glass and paper.

Under that project, communities can opt for voluntary participation, where residents would deposit items into a central container, or for the creation of a door-to-door collection.

The plan also makes recommendations for community composting: one was for composting plant materials to use in local greenhouse projects; another involved a modular rotating composter that would compost 33 per cent of organic materials bound for the landfill, including animal carcasses and cardboard.

About half of the region’s waste is considered household waste. But a breakdown of residual waste in Nunavik’s landfills shows that about 41 per cent of waste is construction, renovation or demolition materials.

Paper and cardboard make up about 18 per cent of landfill waste, while organic waste is 15 per cent.

The new plan, once approved, hopes to change that.

Other measures outlined under the waste management plan:

• scrap metal: KRG’s municipal works department will operate a metal recycling plant, which will visit communities by sealift;

• textiles: clothing to be redistributed through the region, to local shelters and wellness centres; and,

• hazardous waste: establish collection depot at each landfill, managed by the local municipality.

Under Quebec’s Extended Producers Responsibility program, residents already pay a fee on certain items that contain hazardous materials, like paint, mercury bulbs and electronics — to help pay for their safe disposal.

Nunavik will be one of the last regions in Quebec to adopt a residual waste management plan, as required under its Environmental Quality Act.

This is the second time the KRG has sent its plan to Quebec for approval: the first, sent in 2013, was returned for revisions.

The revised version should come into force within the next three months, the KRG said.

Aisara Kenuajuak, KRG councillor for Puvirnituq, welcomed the plan and any funding it will bring to help better organize landfills and encourage more environmentally-friendly practices.

While the landfill in Puvirnituq already has three separate sections for metals, “there are people who dump their garbage wherever they want,” he told the KRG council last week.

“We’re trying to get our community used to separating their contents,” Kenuajuak said. “So I’m very happy to see this plan.”