City teams with U of R

The City of Yorkton is about to get a better vision of recycling after agreeing to a study to be carried out through the University of Regina.

"The mandate of the Environmental Committee is to obtain zero waste to the landfill by 2026. To accomplish this, all rationalization of waste disposal, behaviours, markets, transportation costs and utilization of material must be analyzed. In order to create such a report at a reasonable cost, one must look outside the box," explained Michael Buchholzer, Director of Environmental Services at the regular meeting of Yorkton Council Monday.

One avenue to achieving that knowledge "is to partner with other organizations and existing educational facilities. The University of Regina's fourth year Environmental Systems Engineering class, along with Committees of Tomorrow and Agmar Marketing, has approached the City to support and finance a project-based report on recycling," said Buchholzer.

"The concept "Feel-Good or Earth-Friendly" will be a University group project where approximately 6-10 groups will write and present a report based on information from the City of Yorkton."

"The report will consist of good engineering design and principals, a market analysis and strong business case, while taking into account life-cycle analysis and the challenges of low population densities in Saskatchewan creating limited product volumes. The reports will ask the question as to whether recycling is feel-good marketing or earth-friendly behaviour," detailed a report circulated to Council.

"The City will receive a compiled final report based on the results of the students' research," said Buchholzer.

There will be a cost to the City, but Buchholzer said it was a reasonable one.

"To compensate for some travel and compiling the reports, the University is asking the City to contribute up to a maximum of $3,500 based on a full classroom," he said.

The University budget is set at $9,100 not including in-kind contributions.

The reports are to be completed and presented at the end of March 2012.

"The report findings and funding will form a part of the Pyrolosis Feasibility Study project that was approved during the 2012 budget deliberations," said Buchholzer.

Councillor Bob Maloney noted, "I think this is a good project." He said he has often wondered if the City was doing the right things in terms of recycling, adding the project should answer that.