Garbage and Polar Bears: A Better Solution?

In remote northern communities, it’s impossible to avoid talking trash. Churchill, Manitoba, is home to one of the densest polar bear populations in the world each fall, and unsurprisingly, a dense population of tourists eager to see them in person. This town of 1,000 can see up to 25,000 visitors a year. The economic opportunity that polar bear enthusiasts bring is undeniable, but the food scraps, wrappers and other trash that come with a significant seasonal population increase can tax the town’s waste management capacity. Although Churchill is better connected than most — lying on a port and rail line — communities across Canada’s north face the same challenge. How can they deal with growing piles of waste without creating health problems for people — or wildlife?

Dumps can lead to polar bear encounters

In southern Canada, landfills are the standard method for disposing of waste. These facilities are lined to prevent leaching of dangerous toxins into groundwater, with covers to prevent trash from blowing around and to discourage wildlife from foraging. In northern Canada, however, permafrost, thin soils, high winds, and long winters make a covered landfill difficult or impossible. As a result, many northern communities rely on dumps: unlined and largely uncovered piles of waste.

The downsides can be immense: decomposition sparks fires that create hazardous smoke, while animals scatter trash and ingest plastics and other potential toxics. In areas with polar bears, the smell of garbage is a promise of food that puts waste management staff and their communities at risk of dangerous encounters. Year after year, the waste piles grow. In Greenland, however, an innovative solution is turning waste into opportunity.

Waste into electricity

We joined leaders from Churchill and the Nunavut Department of Environment to see how remote communities in Greenland, some as small as a few hundred people, are part of a national network that moves waste out of their communities and turns it into heat and electricity.

Here’s how it works: by sorting and packaging waste on-site, communities can store waste in a smaller space that can be easier to secure from wildlife.

Then, the bales are shipped to the larger communities of Sisimiut and Nuuk, where modern incinerators can take in all the waste and clean dangerous emissions and metals out of the resulting gases, with only a small amount of inert ash left over. The heat from this process is used to create energy and hot water that can power entire neighbourhoods of households and businesses. For communities that currently depend on diesel generators for electricity, this is an exciting opportunity to tackle some of the biggest municipal challenges at once.

Safe storage is key

While the baling system compresses and reduces the amount of waste a community needs to store at any one time, keeping wildlife and waste separate is still vital.

In most of western Greenland, polar bears are uncommon and thus rarely spotted at waste management facilities. The areas we visited were protected by chain-link fences to discourage Arctic foxes. In some locations, ravens were able to breach the baled waste and spread it around.

In the eastern Greenland community of Ittoqqortoormiit, polar bears are common visitors to the dump. There, we heard that managers use a traditional solution to reduce the risk: sled dog teams that alert workers to the presence of bears.

Previously, Churchill was able to use an old military building as a bear-safe sorting and storage area. But following a devastating fire in 2024, the town was forced to return to using an active dump. Polar Bears International provided bear-proof garbage bins, electric fencing around the dump and new lighting — all with an eye to improving safety for both people and polar bears.

A fresh perspective

While the options for northern Canada are being investigated, Churchill Mayor Michael Spence already sees short-term solutions to reduce the polar bear pressure. “Seeing how Greenland handles waste was really enlightening; it gives you a fresh perspective”.

Even if the tools to turn waste into energy aren’t yet available in this part of Canada, the team came back with new ideas to keep polar bears away from trash — and people.

The town is hoping to build a new storage facility soon, and the techniques they learned from Greenland on packaging and storing waste can expand their capacity.

In the longer term, Mayor Spence hopes Canada will adopt Greenland’s model for communities like his. “The opportunities are there. Waste is a resource, let’s treat it as such.”