Philip Homerski
Information & Business Advisor, City of Hamilton Public Works Department
- 400 - 77 James Street North
- Hamilton
- Canada
Topics
7 Comments
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Re: Effective Signage for Waste Diversion
2012-08-03 10:57:33 UTC
The University of Pittsburgh's experiment on the use of the term "landfill" is encouraging but note that this was done in a controlled environment (a campus facility). Our initial experience with labelling waste drums in our city parks with the prompt "Put waste in the right place - Landfill" to encourage proper litter disposal and reduce cross-contamination had an unfortunate result in some inner-city locations: dumping of residential waste in or around the parks waste barrels was observed to increase. When a Parks employee approached one resident caught in the act of dumping his bag of residential garbage in one of these containers, the resident's excuse was that the container indicated that the contents were going to landfill - which was where his extra garbage needed to go!
On the subsequent printing of the labels we've resorted to the wording "Put waste in the right place - Litter container" as well as adding "No household garbage." A photo is attached.
Philip Homerski
Information & Business Advisor
City of Hamilton Public Works Department
Canada -
Re: Recycling in Public Parks
2011-11-23 16:45:26 UTC
Hello Renee:
The City of Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) has provided seasonal recyclables collection service at 28 municipal park locations since 2005. Unfortunately a 2007 waste audit of a sampling of parks revealed abysmal cross-contamination results in both the waste and recycling streams. City Council directed staff to plan and implement a "public awareness campaign" to encourage proper disposal of recyclables by parks users. In 2010, I implemented a social marketing initiative that encouraged parks users to "put waste in the right place" which has now grown into a public space waste management program supported by corporate sponsorships. I would be more than happy to share our experience with you.
Philip Homerski
Information & Business Advisor
City of Hamilton Public Works Department
Canada -
Re: Apartment Setting Recycling
2011-10-05 09:30:26 UTC
Hi Bill:
The City of Hamilton (Canada) has had a multi-residence recycling program in place for several years. We recently rolled out the organic waste program to multi-res properties too. Check our Website at http://www.hamilton.ca/CityServices/Garbage-and-Recycling/Blue-boxes-recycling/ for information on our municipal recycling programs or click on "Apartment recycling program" for specifics on multi-res. Feel free to contact me directly about communication and outreach elements of the multi-res program.
Philip Homerski
Information & Business Advisor
City of Hamilton Public Works Department
Canada -
Re: Giving Back Yard Waste - For Free
2011-08-19 12:11:23 UTC
Correction!
An astute colleague from a neighbouring municipality noted that in my Aug. 17 post I had indicated that our City of Hamilton composting facility was "anaerobic" and it is, in fact, "aerobic."
I apologise for the error.
Philip Homerski
Information & Business Advisor
City of Hamilton Public Works Department
Canada -
Re: Giving Back Yard Waste - For Free
2011-08-17 10:15:18 UTC
Hi Daniela:
The City of Hamilton (Canada)has offered compost giveaways to residents for many years. Since we're an amalgamated community spanning 1113 sq km with a population of 500,000, we provide six events over three weekends in the spring. These events are very popular with the residents with some lining up well before the gates open.
We normally just advertise on our Website (www.hamilton.ca/waste) and in the local newspapers using simple ads that use headlines such as "Thank you, thank you very mulch" and "Dirt, cheap!".
I should clarify that, like many Canadian municipalities, the source of the compost is from our curbside leaf and yard waste collection. This material is composted in open windrows near our landfill site. Curbside organics (kitchen scraps, etc.) are processed at our composting facility - an anaerobic facility that produces high grade compost which is sold to market.
Philip Homerski
Information & Business Advisor
City of Hamilton Public Works Department
Canada -
Re: A CBSM Approach to Flytipping
2011-05-18 16:28:06 UTC
Hi Sarah:
I'd love to get a copy of your WES. It sounds like it could be very helpful for the project I'm working on here in Hamilton, Canada.
Philip Homerski
Information & Business Advisor
City of Hamilton Public Works Department
Canada -
Literature Review on Illegal Dumping
2011-05-17 14:58:49 UTC
I am in the process of developing a pilot project focusing on illegal dumping in one Hamilton ON neighbourhood that hopefully can be replicated across the whole city over the next few years. I have a considerable amount of literarute on littering and littering behaviour (primarily from Keep America Beautiful) but there seems to be a dirth of research on illegal dumping. Does anyone out there have any studies done on this issue, audits of illegal dump sites or CBSM initiatives in this area?
Philip Homerski
Information & Business Advisor
City of Hamilton Public Works Department
Canada
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