There’s just no excuse for illegal dumping of waste. Not when the landfill is open. Not when it’s free to dispose of materials. Not when garbage collection is weekly. Not when exemptions can be made if you miss a collection day. Not when accommodations can be made if you need to dispose of extra materials.
There is especially no excuse when, in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, most of the materials found illegally dumped in the woods or vacant lots all have programs in place for disposal. If garbage can fit in a bag and weighs less than 25 pounds or 12.5 kilograms, it can be collected curbside on collection day. There’s also an annual heavy garbage collection that will collect larger bulkier items that won’t fit in bags.
Divert NS is a not-for-profit corporation working to improve our environment by reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering resources. They provide $700,000 annually in funding to the province’s seven waste management regions to fund enforcement activities province-wide. This includes reviewing complaints, investigating illegal dump sites, educating residents and businesses on enforcement, auditing waste facilities, and issuing warnings and tickets.
Cape Breton Regional Municipality started its enforcement program in 2010. The funding is used to have a police constable carry out enforcement initiatives around illegal dumping. The constable also helps deal with curbside non-compliance issues.
The program includes a hotline for residents to report illegal dump sites they encounter. The constable investigates each report, to determine if the situation is an illegal dump site. The constable attends each scene, going through contents looking for evidence to determine who owns the garbage, or who left it at the scene. Evidence can be anything from mail to income tax returns to prescription bottles — anything with a name.
It does make some sense, then, that when the COVID-19 crisis hit and the landfill closed to the public from mid-March to June 1, complaints of illegal dumping doubled.
COVID-19 made us stay home. We were tackling projects we didn't have time to take on before. Cleaning up yards, clearing out garages and cleaning up basements. With landfills closed, the opportunity arose for people to go dump their garbage out on the backroads, the woods or other people’s properties. This is not simply a case of littering but taking household garbage off your own property and placing it somewhere else without permission.
On the flip side, reports of illegal dump sites remained steady because people had more time on their hands to be more vigilant.
What COVID-19 has also done is hinder investigations. Illegal dump sites and garbage bags can’t be searched like they used to. Because of possible contamination of items in the bags, the searching process has changed.
A clear bag makes it a little easier to see materials. This, of course, makes it more difficult to find evidence, though searching through the garbage is not the only way. There is now a reliance on the person calling to report a site, or other eyewitnesses to provide any identifiable information, licence plate numbers or vehicle descriptions. Even the presence of more video cameras than ever is also helpful.
Throughout the process of an investigation, interviews are conducted, statements are taken, and charges may be laid, at the discretion of the constable, based on the information gathered. The fine for a first offence of illegal dumping is $697.50.
CBRM has taken a unique approach in utilizing funding to have a constable in place to help with the enforcement of illegal dumping.
While fines have proven to be very effective, the fact remains that there is still no reason for illegal dumping. Not when there is a curbside collection. Not when there are accommodations for extra materials and missing collection days. Not when the landfill is open five days a week, free of charge. Investigations may be hindered by COVID-19 but evidence can still be traced. There’s just no excuse for illegal dumping.
Heather Fegan is a Nova Scotia-based freelance journalist.
