Chatham-Kent is trying its best to save our landfill by accepting more items in the blue box recycling program.
Rick Kucera, Manager of Waste and Recycling Services, says residents can now place empty aerosol containers and empty, dry paint cans with lids off in the municipal blue box.
Kucera says it's an effort to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill each year because it only has five years of life left.
"Clearly the markets are changing. They continue to grow and that's good news because we can now divert those items away from landfill and do our part for the environment here and elsewhere," says Kucera.
Kucera says the municipality continues to see a reduction in the amount of waste going to landfill. He says in 2009, 27,399 tonnes of municipal waste were sent to the landfill, compared to 25,905 tonnes in 2016. That represents a decrease of 5.5%.
Kucera says enhanced recycling means that more material can now be diverted from landfill and recycled to make money.
"These plastics and steel cans are of some value and it's better to recover, reuse and recycle those rather than landfill them, which has been the case up until this year. There's about five years left in the landfill and we need to do our part to continue to make space for things that can't be recycled currently," Kucera says.
Kucera encourages residents to recycle as much material as possible to save the landfill.
"The paint cans have to be dry. We don't want wet paint, obviously, because that would make a mess, not only in the box but on the street and in the truck, etc, etc," says Kucera.