The July 9 council meeting for the RM of Portage la Prairie had a presentation from Robert Pohl, manager of the Portage Landfill.

His presentation went over four goals for the landfill: 

  1.  Get off the Top 10 dangerous jobs list
  2.  Become climate champions
  3.  Reframe perception of the industry as employers of choice
  4.  Continue to strengthen the Portage la Prairie Regional Landfill's infrastructure and financial viability

Pohl describes the key things he shared with council at the meeting.

"The main message is that disposing of waste is a dangerous business. It is always in the top ten most dangerous occupations in North America, and there are things that the community can do to help make the disposal of waste safer for the people that come to the landfill and the people that work there."

He notes that the community has a role to play in the effort to making the work safer as well, stating that the city has a booklet to help with deciding where items should go.

"For the people in the City of Portage la Prairie, before you leave home, if you can review the Waste Reduction Guide, it's quite a good document that will tell them what can be recycled." He adds, "They're (Portage and District Recycling) set up to accept a lot of the hazardous waste for the area, and rather than driving all the way to the landfill, they could dispose of it properly at Portage and District Recycling."

Pohl emphasized that if anything you are removing from your home or from work sites could be a contaminant, it should go to Portage and District Recycling, and not the landfill.