ISSUES
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IDRA ISSUES |
The Kincardine Independent
By: Josh Howald
Post Date: 08/04/2009,
If you have a rodent problem or want to green up your lawn, you had better do it in the next two weeks.
A provincial government ban on cosmetic pesticides takes effect April 22. More than 250 products and 80 ingredients have been banned from sale or use in Ontario.
“We got pages and pages of products that we’ll have to remove,” said Jim Hamilton, owner of Kincardine’s Country Depot Friday morning. “Just about every product of that nature will be off our shelves.”
The Ontario government says the ban protects families and children from unnecessary health risks. Golf courses and the forestry industry are exempt from the ban.
However, the Cosmetics Pesticides Ban Act has drawn ire from Landscape Ontario, which employs more than 66,000 full-time workers. Hamilton also noted that many people don’t realize the full scope of products that will be prohibited.
As well as lawn care products, rat and ant poison are also included in the ban.
“We’ll see what happens in a few years when people have their homes taken over by ants, or start to develop serious rodent problems,” he said. “And our farm and restaurant customers will have to find a new way to deal with flies.”
“The ban is part of the McGuinty government’s commitment to protect families,” says the Ministry of the Environment website. “Especially children from pollution and toxic chemicals through tough new environmental laws.”
“While I agree in principle, I think this has been a huge overreaction,” said Hamilton. “There are many products that are, in fact, quite environmentally friendly that have found their way on the banned list.”
There are 11 classes of pesticides covered in the ban, which can be viewed at www.Ontario.ca/pesticideban. The provincial ban supersedes municipal bylaws in order to create one set of easy-to-understand province wide rules.
Not included in the ban are pre health products that control fleas, products that prevent the spread of West Nile by eliminating wasps, and products that kill plants poisonous to the touch, like poison ivy. Also exempt are products to kill pests that may endanger structures, like termites.
Posted By TROY PATTERSON, Kincardine News Staff
Post Date: 08/04/2009,
Local residents will have to ramp up their recycling and composting efforts or shell out more cash on bag tags next year.
Municipality of Kincardine council is pushing ahead with a cut that would see the 52 bag tags supplied by the municipality reduced to 26.
Additional bag tags will require residents to pick up and sign in order to receive them.
Public Works Manager Jim O'Rourke said the municipality could expect to generate upwards of $200,000 from the additional bag tags, while extending the capacity of the landfills through waste diversion, composting and recycling.
"It's a financial incentive to practice the three R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)," O'Rourke said.
There will also be a push to promote the Green Cone digesters for compost and Black Cones for yard waste, which will sell at half-price or $50 for the pair.
Education will also be a major part of the change-over.
Counc. Randy Roppel did not support the cut, as he said the ones that will be most affected will be young families and people on fixed incomes.
"We'll see no major benefit," Roppel said. "What we'll see are more burn barrels and garbage in the bushes and ditches.
A lot of people are going to suffer because of this."
Tags: bag, tag, hand, outs, cut, rourke, roppel, black, cone, recycle
revised 2010 Mar 10 /p>