THE MOST SURPRISING DEVELOPMENT at the county level in recent

months has been the apparent emerging opposition to a proposal to create a Dufferin facility that would recycle 100 per cent of the waste stream.

It is all the more surprising, nay disappointing, that part of the opposition has been voiced by a municipal mayor who, a few years back, was opposed to a county landfill site because, as he said at the time, digging a hole to bury the garbage shows we haven’t advanced beyond the method used by the Egyptians.

Now, at a time when garbage disposal is in the crisis stage, the county is being offered a solution that’s not only worlds apart from the Egyptians – but one that could well place Dufferin County on an international waste management map.

The proferred solution must be grasped without delay, for three reasons: First, the Michigan border is soon to be closed to garbage from four Dufferin municipalities that use it now, representing 80 per cent of the total population; Second, the composting outlet at Guelph is closing, and it’s not known if the Herhof one in Caledon still has capacity available; Third, it takes time to build a facility of any kind.

The encouraging side of the equation is that Shelburne and Orangeville would be prepared to come up with enough money between them to finance – along with the proponent – the required feasibility study plus a pilot plant to demonstrate that what is being proposed can, in fact, be done.

There is little doubt in our mind that the proposal is valid.

As we understand it, all that’s proposed is to put together a variety of proven technology to create a single facility to do all of the things that are already being done in individual plants around the world.

It’s a sort of one-stop processing centre that would obviate the need for a landfill site. In this case, the proponent is offering to put the mechanism where his mouth is.

Given the current garbage situation, the county should seize the opportunity. There’s precious little time left to act.