In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

Economy And Environment Win In Canadian Province

In Business, May-June, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 3, p. 26

A lifecycle analysis of Nova Scotia's groundbreaking initiatives for waste diversion produces a net savings.

Barry Friesen

TEN YEARS AGO, Nova Scotia first announced its strategy for turning its solid waste into a solid resource, and it has become world-renowned. The heart of its strategy is accepting the single largest waste component - organics as a marketable by-product.
By banning all compostable organics from disposal, the province shot ahead of many others in diverting waste from disposal. Municipalities have risen to the challenge by providing residences with curbside collection of all organic residuals (including meat, fish and bones) for composting. Businesses are no exception and are required to comply with all the disposal bans.
From its population of about one million, Nova Scotia diverts over 100,000 metric tons per year of source-separated municipal organics for composting. As of spring 2005, about 75 percent of residents had curbside collection for all organics, which are being composted at about 18 municipal and commercial composting operations. All Nova Scotia residents are served with curbside collection of recyclables.
As waste diversion services increased, so have waste management costs. Overall, according to a study conducted by GPI Atlantic - a nonprofit, research-based company in the province - Nova Scotia's new waste management infrastructure led to an increase in operating and amortized costs from $48.6 million or $53/person ($Cdn) before the Solid Waste-Resource Management Strategy to $72.5 million or $77/person in GY 2000-2001. The cost of landfilling now bottoms out at around $65/metric ton, sometimes reaching almost double that figure.

MORE COSTLY … OR NOT?
Progressive solid waste-resource management programs therefore look costly because of increased operating costs. For instance, with source-separated organics, recycling and garbage collection, truck routes have almost tripled compared to when there was only one single pick up. Collection costs to municipalities and businesses have therefore increased. But, conventional accounting systems ignore a wide range of hidden benefits from composting and recycling wastes rather than incinerating or landfilling these materials.
To assess the Nova Scotia program from this overall perspective, GPI Atlantic undertook a full cost-benefit analysis approach. Released in July, 2004, the analysis took into account greenhouse gas emissions, liability, efficiency, increased employment, pollutant releases and energy savings. Though not all of these items showed a positive balance, the data overall yielded dramatic results: Despite monetary costs of close to $80 million annually for municipalities, the researchers concluded “… the new system has more than paid for itself from a full cost-benefit perspective, while producing new jobs and substantial environmental benefits.”
The analysis found that, in fiscal 2000/2001, Nova Scotia's solid waste-resource management system produced net savings of $31 million to $168 million, compared to the system from five years earlier, which translates into a savings of $33 to $178 for each Nova Scotian. The huge range in net savings is attributed to benefits resulting from reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (a low of $3.3 million to a high of $84 million) and a reduction of air pollutant emissions (a low of $9.5 million and a high of $67 million). In general, notes GPI Atlantic, the figures produced were very conservative.
Among the benefits cited in the analysis were: $6.5 million to $9 million in increased direct and spin-off employment; $18.8 million in extended landfill life; $9.5 million in diversion credits, funding for approved programs and investment in value-added manufacturing related to the recycling industry; and $1.1 to $1.7 million in increased export revenue of environmental goods and services.
The GPI report found that, on a per capita basis, Nova Scotia disposes of 39 percent less waste than the Canadian average, and that Halifax Regional Municipality (the largest population center in the province) has the highest waste diversion rate (59 percent in 2001) of any municipality in Canada - twice the average. Nova Scotia's overall diversion rate of 46 percent is due in large part to its composting system.
In the end, GPI Atlantic, through its Genuine Progress Index, has provided the province and others with the tools necessary for continuing its good work. Rather than simply a pat on the back for a job well done, the report has given vindication to the hard work and determination for every Nova Scotian who has participated in recycling and composting.

Barry Friesen, P.E., is Solid Waste-Resource Manager with the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Labour. A copy of the full GPI Atlantic Report is available at http://www.gpiatlantic.org/publications/environmental.shtml.