Part 1 - Why Polluters Dump

by Scott Winters, Director of Operational Services

Municipality of East Hants

You are out for an evening walk enjoying the peace and quiet of an old woods road.  You round the corner and suddenly you are faced with bags of garbage ripped open by animals, gyproc and shingles, an old couch, a mattress, a smashed toilet and a derelict car.  Many woods roads in East Hants will lead you to an illegal dumpsite.  They are unsightly, dangerous and costly to clean up.  There are several reasons why someone would illegally dump.  Maybe they arrived too early or too late in the day at the Wast Management Centre?  Some folks will not sort their waste therefore it is refused collection curbside.  Every "dumper" has an excuse but there is never a good reason for throwing your garbage on someone else's property.  In East Hants we are fortunate to have some of the most comprehensive solid waste disposal programs in Nova Scotia.  We have the Solid Waste Hotline (1-888-873-3332) which is staffed Monday to Friday from 8 AM until 4 PM and on Saturdays from 8 AM until 2 PM.  Hotline staff will help you with sorting advice on everything from tires to furniture, cereal boxes, diapers and propane tanks.  They will help you understand what goes where and how to prepare material for curbside collection.  If you were too late getting your material to the end of the driveway or if you have too much for curbside collection, the Waste Management Centre (WMC) in Georgefield will accept sorted household waste.  The WMC also accepts household hazardous waste and construction and demolition debris.  The only items not accepted curbside and at the WMC are ammunition and unidentified hazardous waste. Oddly enough, most of what is found in illegal dumpsites is acceptable at the curb.  The dumper may not be aware that their annual property tax bill includes, on average, $125 to cover the cost of curbside waste collection and disposal as well as other solid waste services.  The dumper has already paid to have material removed from the end of their driveway, yet they choose to load it into a vehicle, drive into the woods, and throw waste on someone else's property, forcing their neighbours to share the cost for clean up.  When a dumpsite is found it is investigated by Municipal Staff.  If the dumper cannot be identified the Municipal tax payer may bear the burden of cost in having the site cleaned up.  If the dumper is identified, there are two levels of consequences that follow.

The first level is contacting the dumper and issuing a Bylaw Enforcement Inspection Report which requires clean up of the site, usually within 7 days.  The dumper will be required to take the waste to the WMC where staff will report back to the Bylaw Enforcement Officer what materials have been received.  If the dumper does not clean up the site, the second step in enforcement is to issue a Summary Offense Ticket to the dumper who refuses to clean up their material.  According to the Municipality of East Hants Solid Waste Bylaw, a Summary Offense Ticket may carry penalties of up to $5000 for each day the offense continues.  Repeat offenders may be fined even though they clean up their dumped material.  Given the opportunities to dispose of waste responsibly and the consequences of dumping, it hardly seems worth the risk.

Contact:  Scott Winters, Director of Operational Services

758-1800  ext 100

This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it