A plan to reduce the amount of garbage being thrown out in the city and divert more waste to recycling and composting was approved Tuesday, but not without a few objections.
Starting in October, the three bags a week limit will be reduced to two. In 2019, the weekly limit drops to one and by 2021, garbage pickup will be every second week, limited to two bags.
Before that, city staff plan to roll out programs to help people who, for different reasons, must throw out more garbage than others. They also have a proposed communication plan aimed at informing residents why the changes are taking place.
Families with children in diapers, for example, can register in the clear bag program, in which they can throw out more than the limit using clear plastic garbage bags, provided they also use recycling and composting programs.
The move is expected to save about $7.2 million over the next 25 years, as well as delay the need to open a new landfill site, which has about 25 years left under the current policy.
Chantal Mathieu, the city's director of environmental services, said the city has acquired the rights to the waste wizard app, which will also be available for use on the city's website.
The wizard gives residents information on what can be done with different types of waste – which can be recycled, composted, etc.
“You'll also be able to find out the hours of the landfill, your collection day,” Mathieu said. “We'll be rolling all that out over the next year.”
She said about 89 per cent of residents are already below the current three-bag limit. The goal over the next few years is to reduce that even more, particularly by increasing participation in composting, which lags well behind recycling. Currently, only about 40 per cent compost.
“We want you to fill up your green cart,” Mathieu said. “This transition is to ease people into the new system.”
Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini said he was concerned that problems with dumping in some areas of his ward will get worse once the city moves to collection every two weeks.
“On MR10, we have garbage being thrown all over the place,” Vagnini said. “If we take away the weekly pickup, I believe people will divert their garbage all over the place.”
And Ward 5 Coun. Bob Kirwan wondered why they needed to pass a bylaw to force people to reduce trash, when most are already doing it voluntarily.
“The people I talk to really want to protect the environment for our kids,” Kirwan said. “But we don't need a bylaw. We already have enough bylaws.
“People are voluntarily doing it. We don't need a rule … In a couple of years, we'll probably have everybody down to one bag (a week). But we don't need to put the hammer down.”
Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre said key will be informing residents that, while garbage pickup is being reduced, recycling and composting will stay the same.
When people realize they can use blue and green boxes to the full every week, “people realize it will be not bad,” Lapierre said.
“We have to be responsible for the future. Landfills are astronomically expensive.”
“Over the long-term ... we are going to save not just our generation of taxpayers, but generations and generations,” said Ward 7 Coun. Mike Jakubo.
“The amount of savings we're going to see will get higher and higher. And it's not hard to divert more. Residents will be surprised to find all the items that can go in a green bin or a blue box.”
Mayor Brian Bigger said the prospect of having to open a new landfill is not only expensive, but also complex. For example, which part of the city would accept one?
“The best time to deal with the capacity of our landfill is right now,” Bigger said. “The cost of trying to develop a new landfill, picking a location, is a pretty daunting task.
“And I don't see it as a reduction in bag limits, I see it as an increase in the use of the blue bins and the green bins.”
