With the Moose Jaw landfill approaching its end, the City has begun a making new Waste Management Master Plan with the help Tetra Tech, an American based engineering, and program managing company.

With audits done on the landfill to see what kind of trash was making its way into our dump, Tetra Tech assessed our dump to see what the future could be like and how we could improve it.

They were literally going through people's trash to see what was actually waste and what could be composted, diverted, or recylced. 

Using all the information gathered, they've managed to put together a slideshow to show all their findings of our landfill, what regulations landfills follow now, and possible services we could look further into like recycling, composting and diverting waste.

Looking into all the options and possibilities, the City is currently focused on what residents want, specifically, what do we want to keep, start, or stop doing.

Let's Talk Trash, There's No Time to Waste is the City of Moose Jaw's current venture into discovering what the community wants out of its waste management since it is a residential service and an issue we can all address.

Throughout Thursday, City workers involved with waste management met with locals to speak about what they want in a new landfill. In the morning they spoke with external stakeholders about the plan, which included a dozen groups or so, which includes the Chamber of Commerce, the school boards, and the hospital to name few. At night, they spoke with concerned and interested residents about the landfill.

Residents who attended were interested in the landfill findings from Tetra Tech and asked questions about improved recycling, budget, and our current landfill situation.

One resident that came out was Sarah Simison. After taking a more concerted look at how much she was wasting and reducing how much garbage she was generating, she came to have a word in how waste management would be handled in the city.

"This is our opportunity to set an example, right? We can do something, we can stand out," Simison said. "You know, the fact that we're decommissioning our landfill in a few years means that we have the opportunity to have something new and cutting edge in terms of what we can do."

Also, they want to know anything and everything from residents. In the next few weeks, their consultations will ask about the future of waste management in Moose Jaw, how residual waste should be managed, how it should and could be diverted, how it should be collected, and how the City could educate residents on recycling and waste.

"Public input is definitely a key factor in making sure that a plan works," Tetra Tech Project Engineer Lauren Quan explained. "There's a lot of options for very expensive infrastructure that you could build but then if no ones going to use it it's sort of just a waste so we really want to get a sense of what it the community looking to do in the future and then the City will have to make a few decisions around what the City could afford."

Further consultations will be held at the Warrior game Friday night, and there is also an online survey being conducted right now by the City.