The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

durhamregion.com This Week | Thursday, June 2, 2022 | 8 Preplan Today We offer families all the of modern amenities with timeless values of trust, caring service and commitment to the community Family owned and operated. 110 Dundas Street E.,Whitby 905-668-3410 • wctownfuneralchapel.com eplan T y We offer families all the of modern amenities with for the sake of your loved ones Funding has been announced for a new French language Catholic school in Brooklin. On May 2, the province announced $12 million for an elementary school that will be part of Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir. "North Durham Region, especially in Brooklin, is an area that is experiencing strong population growth," says MonAvenir Trustee Roger Brideau. "Many new families are choosing to settle here. This will give French speaking Catholic students access to a school close to home." The new school will have space for 354 students as well as 49 licensed childcare spaces. An exact location for the school hasn't been determined. "We are pleased that the Ontario government has recognized the growing needs of the francophone population and we are moving immediately forward with the next steps of the project," says MonAvenir chair Geneviève Grenier. "Our next priority will be to identify a site to build the new school." NEWS NEW FRENCH LANGUAGE CATHOLIC SCHOOL ANNOUNCED FOR BROOKLIN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WILL HAVE SPACE FOR 354 STUDENTS behaviour, now," said environmental advocate Linda Gasser. A six-month clear garbage bag pilot would start in spring 2023 and continue until the fall. Clear bags would be collected on certain urban Clarington routes. The exact streets have not been selected, yet. Residents would have a four-week grace period to use up their black garbage bags and make sorting mistakes. Then the clear garbage bag program would be fully mandatory, meaning that if any visible blue box material, food or household hazardous waste is detected in the garbage bag, the bag will be left at the curb. The issue was debated at a recent regional works committee meeting. Some of the pros of clear bags are: • Residents learn to more carefully sort their trash. • Removes hazardous and electronics materials (paint, pool chemicals, batteries, etc.) from garbage bags. • Increases diversion, recycling going into blue bins and organic material into green bins. • Better protects the collectors, who can see and avoid any sharp or dangerous objects in the bag. • Less toxic garbage would go into the Durham York energy-from-waste (EFW) facility, reducing air pollution. • Increasing recycling and composting, could mean less trash going into the EFW (which has been working over capacity) and reduce the need to expand the incinerator. "I do believe that clear garbage bags are a way to help us with our garbage, with our waste. I think we need to have a very positive push on it," said Scugog regional Coun. Wilma Wotten. Some of the cons are: • Could slow down collection or require more collectors. • A rejected trash bag is inconvenient for residents, who have to either drive to the waste station or re-sort the garbage and wait for the next pickup date. • White kitchen bin liners would need to be emptied out into the larger clear garbage bags for the curb, which may be inconvenient and messy for residents. "I'm not in favour of it, and I would suggest the general public is not either, at least the quiet majority," said Oshawa regional Coun. Tito-Dante Marimpietri. In 2009, the region ran a clear garbage bag pilot study in parts of Clarington and Pickering. The clear bags didn't seem to make residents recycle that much more, but did increase participation in the green bin kitchen waste program (14 per cent). The findings of the 2009 pilot were considered in the 2010 waste management study, but the region didn't adopt a Durhamwide change to clear garbage bags at the time. Now environmental advocates are pushing for the region to reconsider. "There's many residents doing all the right things ... There are others who need to be incentivized to do the right thing. It's also education, they don't understand the toxic consequences of doing the wrong thing," said Bracken. The pilot will be judged on: 1. Garbage generation rates (compared to the baseline data). 2. The amount of blue box, green bin and hazardous material found in the bag (compared to the baseline). 3. Collector injury rate. 4. Impacts to the collection routes (e.g. collection time). 5. The number of illegal dumping complaints. The Clarington clear garbage bag pilot program would determine if it should be implemented across the Region of Durham. The cost is approximately $125,000 for the 2022 background work, and an estimated $405,000 for the remaining pilot costs will be considered in the 2023 budget. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Durham environmental advocates are pushing for the region to reconsider adopting clear garbage bags. NEWS Continued from page 1 'CLEAR GARBAGE BAGS ARE A WAY TO HELP US WITH OUR GARBAGE' About half of the waste collected in Durham Region shouldn't be in the garbage, a 2015 study found. Metroland file photo