PITCH-IN CANADA
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Indiscriminate dumping on the rise
by PITCH-IN CANADA

VANCOUVER: Managing our waste has become a major challenge and costly endeavour especially as all governments face budget cutbacks. To reduce waste and encourage recycling, many communities have or are being urged to increase tipping fees and implement user-pay strategies to more accurately appropriate the cost of disposal and reduce the amount of waste discharged. Others have banned the disposal of certain waste items from landfills altogether.

The effects of these and other actions are evident. Unfortunately, they are not all positive. Indiscriminate dumping is on the rise and many Canadian communities are facing rapidly increasing clean-up costs at a time when they can least afford it!

Communities, in particular, understand the positive effects that proper waste management practises and an attractive community can have on tourism, economic development, health and on waste management costs. As a result, many have participated in, and financially supported, successful short-term awareness and clean-up programs such as PITCH-IN CANADA WEEK. Others have launched long-term recycling programs to bring the message of reducing, re-using, recycling and properly disposing of waste to every resident's door step.

However, reducing and effectively managing waste takes time, effort and voluntary cooperation from residents. When such cooperation is obtained, bottom line costs associated with managing and cleaning up waste can be controlled.

PITCH-IN CANADA, a national, non-profit organization has, since 1967, been working with thousands of local communities, schools, volunteer agencies, businesses and industries to reduce and more effectively manage waste. In recent years the organization has developed, using international models and research, a long-term program for communities to help them fight litter and manage waste.

Known as the CIVIC PRIDE Waste Management Program, it assists communities in implementing an effective, year-round, waste management program. The CIVIC PRIDE Waste Management Program is a citizen-based initiative intended to create high, personal environmental standards.

The program has been successfully introduced or adapted for use in the United States, England, Australia and other countries. The American Public Works Association, which represents most professional waste managers in communities throughout North America, has conducted a cost/benefit analysis of communities which have implemented this program. They concluded that programs such as the CIVIC PRIDE Waste Management Program are highly successful and offer an excellent return on investment for participating communities.

The program offers a new approach to managing waste and reducing litter. In contrast to many other short term programs aimed at cleaning up litter, this program is year-round, offering a step-by-step approach to reduce the sources of waste within a community. It is a preventative program, which systematically enables a community to evaluate its successes while recommending specific actions to tackle the sources.

The partnership program, which involves citizens, businesses, volunteer organizations, local government, educational institutions and the media, consists of six components and assists local government in establishing and maintaining standards of cleanliness. These components are: Systems Analysis, Program Development, Action, Legislation and Enforcement, Education and Promotion.

In a cost/benefit analysis undertaken by The American Public Works Association, North America's experts on local sanitation operations, it was determined that communities participating in year-round programs substantially decrease their total expenditures on waste management/sanitation services.

The study showed that, on average, a community can save $3-4 for every $1 invested in year-round waste management programs through cost avoidance and/or budget reduction. Larger communities surveyed obtained cost/benefit ratios of 1:10, 1:18, 1:27, 1:53 and as high as 1:111. Smaller communities obtained ratios of 1:5.5 and 1:7.7.

Reduction in a community's existing waste management costs should exceed the cost of implementing the CIVIC PRIDE Waste Management Program and, based on PITCH-IN CANADA's experience, local businesses and service clubs are usually eager to financially assist with the implementation of a program which instills civic pride in their community.

Interested municipal officials can contact PITCH-IN CANADA for more information or visit  PITCH-IN CANADA's website to download more information, including a comprehensive training manual.  PITCH-IN CANADA can be contacted at www.PITCH-IN.ca,  at pitch-in@PITCH-IN.ca or by writing to Box 45011, Ocean Park RPO, White Rock, B.C., V4A 9L1.

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