Mayor Peter Fenwick of Cape St. George has resigned his position from the Western Regional Service Board.
He said under the proposed board members rules of conduct all members must support the decisions of Regional Service Board effective immediately, but he is unable to do so.
In his letter of resignation to Josh Carey, chair, Fenwick said he has been unalterably opposed to the two-stream system of waste management that was adopted last year and is to be implemented this July.
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The two-stream system involves using clear bags for regular garbage and blue bags for recyclables.
It is an effort to increase the diversion of recyclables and prevent hazardous materials from going into landfills.
Fenwick said after 16 years of development the plan to close all waste sites and divert 50 per cent of the waste is only half in place and taxpayers of the west coast will pay to ship all their waste to central Newfoundland.
Fenwick said for him, even more a source of disagreement is the veto on using a large-scale digester by our Bay St. George Waste Management committee to divert organic waste from the Bay St. George region to a farm in Maidstone.
Mayor Debbie Brake-Patten of Kippens said she’s afraid to see where this waste management is going with the two-stream system.
“To me, it seems government is putting the cart before the horse rolling this out now as there should have been a lot more education to the public before coming out with this,” she said.
Brake-Patten said now towns and local service districts are trying to communicate this two-stream service to their residents, while still trying to understand it themselves.
“We’re just as concerned as our residents are,” she said.
Brake-Patten said the Town of Kippens will be moving forward with the recycling of plastics, glass, cardboard, tin cans and metals.
