Kawartha Lakes keeping a bulky plastic program at the Lindsay Ops landfill

DAN CEARNS, The Standard

KAWARTHA LAKES: The City of Kawartha Lakes is moving forward with making a recycling program for bulky plastics permanent, at the Lindsay Ops landfill.

At a meeting, earlier this month, Kawartha Lakes councillors saw a report on a recycling program which had been piloted from 2022 until this year.

“Bulky plastics is a category for waste items: including lawn chairs, damaged recycling/waste bins or carts, toys, laundry hampers, hangers and more,” the report explained. “The majority of bulky plastics have, historically, been landfilled in Kawartha Lakes, needlessly taking up valuable space and shortening the lifespan of our landfills.”

The report went on to state, the pilot program saw the “diversion of 70 tonnes of bulky plastic from the Lindsay Ops Landfill.”

At the meeting, councillors voted to make the program permanent, and to increase the program’s budget to $35,000 in 2024.

“I’m just so thankful to see [this report and recommendation],” Ward 1 Councillor, Emmett Yeo said. “Last term, I was on the waste committee and brought [this idea] up, and I’m so glad to see it back.”