If you don’t like change, you may not be thrilled with the new waste collection regime the County of Simcoe has implemented.
Beginning Monday, garbage and recycling will be collected every other week, while green bin collection will continue every week.
For week one, you should put out garbage and your green bin.
The following week, you put out your recycling and green bin, but not the garbage.
That will be the schedule going foward.
Rob McCullough, Director of Solid Waste Management with the County of Simcoe, believes this change will encourage more organics diversion.
“Over 40 per cent of what’s in a garbage can should be in the green bin. If residents know it’s going to be sitting in their garage for a couple of weeks, then it seems to be a good motivating factor.”
The new schedule is also expected to alleviate some of the collection issues, with missed pick up. Some of those issues were related to the contractor and lack of staff.
Concern has been expressed that regular garbage sitting there for two weeks is going to raise a stink.
“Food waste is obviously going to have the greatest potential for odour,” says McCullough. “By continuing to collect that material weekly, I know are residents will be more motivated to transfer the material that’s in their garbage that should be in the green bin.”
McCullough says another benefit to the change is that recycling no longer needs to be separated into different bins. Materials will be sorted later in the process.
With the change, residents can set out two bags/containers of garbage every other week(weight and size restrictions still apply).
The County says other benefits associated with the collection changes include keeping organics out of the dump will extend the lifespan of landfills, lowers greenhouse gas emissions produced by collection vehicles by reducing the number of trucks on the road each day, and helps control contractual costs.
These collection changes do not apply to the cities of Barrie and Orillia.
