Why are clear garbage bags so controversial? Several Sudbury city councillors oppose proposed switch

The City of Greater Sudbury is working to reduce how much garbage goes into the local landfills, and although clear garbage bags are an effective and cheap way to address the problem, council has decided to put that idea on hold for now.

At a meeting on Tuesday, city staff presented the sustainable waste strategy. It's a 10-year plan that aims to work toward"achieving 90 per cent solid waste diversion by 2050 and contributes to progressing the overall goal of net zero emissions."

Greater Sudbury's three landfills are at about 60 per cent capacity and it would cost about $200 million to replace all of them.

The new strategy offers a number of solutions to delay the need to spend that kind of money, including recommending that citizens be required touse clear garbage bags.

"The clear bag program will educate low density residential households and households in multi-residential properties who have a roadside waste collection agreement on how to properly separate waste into garbage, recycling and organic streams," the report states.

"Of all the recommended actions in the [strategy], the clear bag program is expected to provide the highest return in increased diversion, decreased waste and reduction of greenhouse gases."

But the idea isn't sitting well with some Sudbury city councillors. They didn't reject the proposal outright, but agreed to revisit the debate at another time.

Several councillors cited privacy concerns, as well as the time it would take people to further sort their trash. They also said diversion initiatives tend to target low-density residential households, as opposed to apartment buildings, andthey would like measures that require efforts from all residents no matter their living arrangement.

The strategy does recommend the expansion of composting programs tobuildings and non-residential buildings.

Coun.Natalie Labbe fears her constituents will lash out.

"We need to give the green cart a little bit more energy and focus to try and educate people that way instead of, you know, inconveniencing them through this garbage bag thing," she said.

"I'm hearing it a lot. I've had I don't know how many emails today."

Earlier this year, the idea of using clear garbage bags was presented at a city operations committee meeting. Councillors Mike Parent and Pauline Fortin expressed their concern at the time. In September, the two presented a motion asking staff to look at other options.

Those other options included expanding the city's composting program and introducing green cart collection at apartment buildings.

However, the idea of clear garbage bags was still included in the report anddiscussed at Tuesday's meeting.

Less trash, more compost

Switching to clear garbage bags isn't a new concept.

It's been on the books for years in several northern Ontario towns, including Northeasern Manitoulin and the Islands and the Township of Nipissing.

In 2022, the City of Orillia implemented the switch to clear garbage bags. Greg Preston, the director of waste management,said that when the change happened, the results were immediate.

"In the first two years of the program, we saw almost the 40 per cent drop in the amount of garbage set out at the curb by weight," he said.

"We also saw a large increase, almost 20 per cent green bin and yard waste material like organic compostable material being set out at the curb as well."

Preston said initially, there were complaints and calls about people being concerned that their trash wouldn't be picked up or that their neighbours could see what they were throwing out, but that faded over time.