Garbage pickup in Greater Sudbury won't be changing anytime soon, following a close vote Monday at city hall.
Members of the operations committee voted 4-3 in favour of keeping the status quo at least until 2021. That means weekly collection of three bags will continue at least then, assuming the decision is ratified by the full city council at its next meeting Feb. 9.
Councillors had been presented with a series of options, ranging from reducing the bag limit to two every week, going to collection every two weeks, or both.
Chantal Mathieu, the city's director of environmental services, said several cities in Ontario have already made the switch in one form or another. Sault Ste. Marie, for example, reduced its limit to two bags a decade ago, while Kingston has reduced its bag limit to one.
The reason for the proposed changes was to avoid having to open a new landfill once the dump on The Kingsway is full, which would cost at least $40 million-$50 million. The best way to do that, Mathieu said, is to increase the amount residents recycle and compost.
And cities have found the most effective way to do that is to decrease the amount of garbage people can throw out each week, or to reduce the frequency of garbage collection.
“We have low participation rates in that program,” she said, of the city's green cart program.
While cities have found there's a spike in illegal dumping once the change is brought in, Mathieu said it becomes much less of a problem as education programs get more people to compost and recycle.
There would have been exceptions -- for example, for older citizens and people with young families, who tend to produce more garbage than other households.
“We're not trying to make things difficult for people with young children who throw out diapers.”
Much of the waste thrown into landfill in Sudbury could be diverted to the other programs, she said. They know that because they actually study what people throw out.
“We sift through garbage bags to see what's in there,” she said.
But Sudburians are very passionate on this issue, councillors said. Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier said residents in his area have made it clear they don't want changes in garbage collection.
He said the city should focus instead on educating the public to voluntarily increase their composting and recycling, rather than forcing them to do it through a service change.
“I believe education will work,” Montpellier said. “Garbage is the largest calls I receive – well above snowplowing even.”
“Let's leave things as they are,” agreed Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini.
But Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier reminded the committee that the cost of a new landfill is roughly the equivalent of building a new Sudbury Arena. While it may not be pressing now, since the current dump will last for another 25 years, it is a cost that the city will eventually have to bear.
“It's big bucks,” Cormier said. “So it would be forget about a new arena, forget investments in infrastructure.”
At his home, he made a bet that composting would cut the amount of garbage they throw out in half – and he won.
“And the garbage you have left does not stink,” he said. “I want to challenge of the citizens of Greater Sudbury to try it.”
While changes to collection policies were defeated, councillors did approve plans for increased education about the green cart and other diversion programs.
Voting in favour of maintaining existing garbage collection policies: Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini, Ward 3 Coun. Marcel Montpellier, Ward 4 Coun. Evelyn Dutrisac, Ward 5 Coun. Bob Kirwan.
Voting against: Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier, Ward 11 Coun. Lynne Reynolds and Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann.
