BY JEAN-PATRICK ARMSTRONG
Multiple employees of the Parks and Open Space department of the Town of Oakville have told the Sheridan Sun that recycling thrown in bins in Town parks is routinely put into the garbage. The bins in question are the ones found in many parks in Oakville referred to as Moloks (as seen in the picture below).
Emptying these bins is the responsibility of the sanitation division. Of the multiple employees claiming recycling ends up in the landfill, two agreed to go on record. Edith Carr, an ex-employee, said that when the issue of the recycling being thrown out was identified to their superiors, they were told that the Town was working on it.
“They have been working on it for years, and have done nothing,” said Carr. She also said it wasn’t just recycling in the Molok bins that was ending up at the landfill.
“At events that are hosted by the Town of Oakville, we are told to put out blue cans and use clear bags to give the illusion of recycling, and then throw it in the garbage truck to dump later with all the other garbage,” explained Carr.
When told that multiple employees have stated that recycling is routinely thrown into the garbage, Jorge Gomez, chief of staff for the Office of the Mayor and Council, said, “Recycling that is collected gets taken to 1025 Cornwall Road to be recycled. There may be times that in the rare occurrence any recycling is contaminated it would be disposed of.”
However, Callum Challis, another ex-employee of the Town, confirmed Carr’s story, saying that Oakville had a “facade” of a recycling program:
“The recycling Moloks and blue cans at certain events make it appear like those garbage bags and bins are being sent somewhere to be recycled, but in fact just end up in the same dumpster.”