As part of its ongoing plan to better manage Newfoundland and Labrador's (N.L.'s) waste, the N.L. government has opened a new landfill in St. George's.
The new landfill, which opened on January 3, 2012, is accepting waste from communities in the Bay St. George region.
As a result, landfill sites in Bay St. George, Fox Island River, Gallants, Lourdes, and Stephenville have been shut down.
Communities serviced by the St. George's landfill, which is administered by the Town of St. George's, can bring their waste to the site between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday at no charge for residential users. Household hazardous waste brought to the site must be separated from regular waste.
The N.L. government contributed $500,000 to the construction of the landfill.
The landfill will be used until a final site for western Newfoundland waste becomes operational in 2016, N.L. Department of Municipal Affairs Spokesperson Ken Morrissey told EcoLog News.
The St. George's landfill is part of the N.L. government's $200-million Provincial Solid Waste Management Strategy, which aims to reduce the number of waste disposal sites in the province by 80 per cent and the amount of waste entering provincial landfills by 50 per cent by 2020.
This news item first appeared in EcoLog News (1/20/12). To learn how to subscribe, visit www.ecolog.com