Wellington County council approved expanding waste and recyclable collection to rural households at its March 31 meeting.
However the expanded service comes at a price, in the form of higher user fees and uncertainty about the fate of waste transfer stations in the county.
In approving the solid waste services committee recommendation to expand the collection, council also endorsed changes to user fees for waste disposal, the first increase since the county took over waste services during the municipal amalgamation process over 15 years ago.
As of July 1:
– large user pay garbage bags will cost $2, an increase of 25 cents;
– small user pay bags will increase to $1.50 from $1; and
– bags brought to county waste facilities will cost $2 each to drop off.
The county anticipates the user fee changes will offset the additional cost of providing the expanded rural roadside collection service every other week.
In advance of the July 1 start date, two large blue boxes will be delivered to each rural household in the five municipalities that will begin receiving the expanded service.
The delivery will occur in late May or early June, and will include an information package to provide details on how to participate in the roadside waste and recycling program.
“Expanding rural collection will allow all county residents the opportunity to access curbside services,” stated Warden George Bridge in a March 31 press release. “Given a convenient end-of-driveway option, we expect households will recycle as much of their waste as possible, which will extend the life of our landfill, which benefits all Wellington County residents.”
The county commissioned Oraclepoll Research Ltd. to conduct a phone survey of randomly-selected Wellington residents on issues related to waste management services.
“There is strong backing for rural collection in both urban and rural areas, with 84 per cent of respondents in support of expanding the service,” commented solid waste services chair councillor Don McKay.
“It was important for us to solicit the public’s feedback before making this decision.”
McKay told council equality and accessibly of service, as well as “resident satisfaction,” were among the committee’s reasons for recommending expanded rural collection.
Since 2006, the county has picked up garbage and recycling every other week in rural areas of Guelph-Eramosa and since 2010 in Erin. Neither municipality has a transfer station within its borders.
McKay said the move was partially about “levelling the playing field,” however Guelph-Eramosa Mayor Chris White disputed that perception.
“I am having trouble with the idea this is a level playing field,” said White, noting that unless changes are made, several municipalities will have both rural pickup and a waste transfer station.
“I don’t know if you’ll ever get to a level playing field and I don’t object to that,” said White. “But this is not a level playing field. Let’s just call it what it is.”
Councillor Doug Breen said his understanding was “it was historically an either/or proposition. I’m not taking a position on this but … did I misunderstand this?” Breen wondered.
County engineer Gord Ough said when the county was asked by municipalities to take over waste collection, “it was not clearly stated that everyone would have a transfer station or necessarily the same service.” He said boundary lines were eliminated within the county for use of transfer stations, which were “strategically placed around the county so it would be easy for everyone to get to one.”
McKay pointed out the committee will be considering the future of the transfer stations over the next eight to 12 months.
“Everything is on the table with regard to transfer stations. We can look at keeping them as they are, reducing the hours, maybe expanding the hours … we can look at opening some new ones, maybe close some,” said McKay.
White said he recognized the committee would be looking at the whole system.
“All I would ask then is that as you look at what they may or may not morph into, that we look at those who don’t have a transfer station with the idea that they might be getting whatever these transfer stations morph into,” said White.
“I’m not trying to do a north/south thing, I’m just looking at this as a whole,” he added.
“I just want to confirm this isn’t a north versus south issue, because it’s starting to sound like that and I’m glad you’re correcting that,” commented Mapleton Mayor Neil Driscoll, adding he feels the measure will be beneficial to the whole county.
Erin Mayor Allan Alls said the move doesn’t benefit residents of his municipality, where some residents would like to see garbage pickup weekly during the summer.
“We don’t have a transfer station, we don’t have summer pickup and now we’re asking our residents to pay more for their bags,” Alls stated. “I’m quite willing to share a transfer station with councillor White, maybe located on his half.”
While stating he agreed with extending the service, councillor Shawn Watters expressed concern about the increase in cost for bags delivered to the landfill by residents.
“The last thing we want is garbage bags being put by the side of the road,” said Watters.
McKay explained that in the past, the price for bags taken to the landfill was lower because “for the rural areas there was no option of having their waste picked up.”
Councillor Gregg Davidson, a solid waste services committee member, pointed out the user-pay bag prices were under review regardless of the move to rural pickup.
“We were going to raise bags to $2.25 but now that this rural collection is in it’s actually come down.” Davidson also noted the committee is considering the idea of organics collection, stating, “perhaps that will solve some of the issues with the stinky garbage in the summertime.”
“I think we have a lot of opportunities to win big here,” commented Bridge, adding the expanded recyclable collection should result in waste diversion, extending the life of the county’s landfill site. “Every year we can keep that open we save $4 million,” he stated.
A resolution to accept the committee minutes, including the recommendation to proceed with rural pickup and increased user fees, passed unopposed.
