Green Markham Goes Platinum Wins Top 2007 RCO Sustainable Municipality Award

Markham, ON ~ The Town of Markham has gone platinum. Markham’s Mission Green environmental initiative has earned the coveted 2007 Sustainable Municipality Platinum Award from the Recycling Council of Ontario.The Recycling Council’s annual Ontario Waste Minimization Awards are the province’s most prestigious recycling awards. “This is great recognition of Markham’s environmental leadership.” said Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti. “Markham’s had Town-wide organics collection in operation since 2005, with a goal to divert 70 per cent of residential waste from landfill by the end of 2007. We were delighted to achieve our target earlier this year.”“When you see the recently released numbers on diversion through green bin programs now in place in all nine York Region municipalities, you can see everyone is increasingly on board and committed to going green,” said Mayor Scarpitti. “Residents are constantly challenging us to find more ways to recycle,” said Regional Councillor Jack Heath, the Chair of Markham’s 3-Stream recycling sub-committee. “When we call for Markham residents to get involved and support environmental initiatives, they never disappoint. In fact, they push us to do more.”Markham Council decided earlier this year to set a new ambitious target of 75 percent waste diversion.Chair of Environmental Issues and Sustainability Committee Councillor Erin Shapero noted, “Markham is the first large urban municipality to win a platinum award from the RCO. We could not have won this award without the support and commitment of our residents and we want to thank them for their participation. We are all working together to ensure we have a healthier environment in our world.” Even with the 70 percent level of diversion in Markham, a detailed waste audit in early 2007 revealed the green bin and the expanded blue box program were not capturing all the materials they could. To help reach the new 75 percent target, Markham has five pilot projects underway to test options to further increase waste diversion and reduce litter. The Town is testing the effectiveness of transparent bags for waste residue and a blue box lid to keep materials from spilling out and becoming litter. “Environmental sustainability is a key focus area for this Council. In addition to our aggressive new waste diversion target, we have passed a pesticide bylaw, are planning tree planting initiatives and are supporting energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in all new developments,” said Mayor Scarpitti.