County staff have been receiving positive comments about the decision to implement rural waste pickup and recycling throughout Wellington.
Solid Waste Services committee chair councillor Don McKay told county on May 26 that “a lot of information is going out into the community about this rural collection that’s going to happen starting July.
“Staff have been getting a lot of positive comments … Some people couldn’t believe it that we were going to have rural collection in all of Wellington County.”
At the March Solid Waste Services (SWS) and county council meetings, the decision was made to expand rural collection of waste and recyclables to the five Wellington municipalities not currently receiving the service, beginning in early July.
“Planning for the service expansion commenced immediately following the decision, and staff have been making a successful roll-out of rural collection a top priority,” states a staff report presented to council at the meeting last week.
It was determined collection in the rural areas would be aligned with collection days in urban areas in the same municipality. For example, Minto rural collection will be on Tuesdays, the same day collection occurs in Palmerston, Harriston, Clifford and the other urban areas of Minto.
Due to a bi-weekly rural collection schedule, and in order for contractor Waste Management to best utilize its staff and truck fleet, the county has agreed to a Week 1 and a Week 2 schedule for rural collection.
Due to the larger population, the rural areas of Centre Wellington have been split up between Week 1 and Week 2 with Highway 6 being the dividing line.
Similar to rural collection in the Town of Erin and Guelph-Eramosa Township (areas currently receiving rural collection), set-out points on town/township roads will continue to be on one side of the road, while collection will occur on both sides of the road for county roads and provincial highways.
Erin and Guelph-Eramosa residents living on local roads have been instructed to set out their materials on the same side of the road as their mail box, while in the rest of the county collection will be on either the “odd” or “even” side of the road, based on civic address numbers.
The county has ordered 20,000 22-gallon blue boxes for rural residents.
Similar to past rural collection service roll-outs, two blue boxes will be delivered to each household complete with an introductory information package.
Deliveries began in late May and are expected to be completed by mid to late June.
The staff report notes the larger blue box will accommodate recyclable volumes anticipated on a bi-weekly collection schedule.
“With the addition of flower pots and planter trays to the blue box program, and with packaging trends of having bulky plastic containers, the larger blue box will be a convenient tool for county residents,” the report states.
McKay pointed out rural residents will be allowed to use garbage cans, provided only one bag is placed in each can, as a means of keeping animals out of the garbage.
Councillor Chris White asked if containers would have to have a sticker indicating they are county-approved.
County engineer Gordon Ough explained that for urban residents “if you want to use a can you need to have it approved by staff and probably stickered.” However, he added, “I don’t believe (that is required) in the rural areas – it’s always been available for people in rural area to use cans.”
“What’s the difference?” wondered White, who asked McKay to provide clarification of the variation in standards.
McKay said he would put it on the agenda.
Councillor Rob Black asked what the earliest potential pickup times would be, noting the animal issue could be minimized by putting garbage out in the morning rather than leaving it overnight.
CAO Scott Wilson clarified that residents are required to have garbage out by 7am on their collection day in order to be sure of not missing the trucks.
Transfer stations
McKay also clarified the status of transfer stations that currently exist in some municipalities.
“Many people took my words too literally when I said ‘everything’s on the table’” with regard to transfer stations, McKay said. He added some residents took his statements at the April county council meeting to mean the stations would be closed.
“Some could be, but there could also be some opening up,” said McKay. “Some people seemed to think, especially in Puslinch, that the Aberfoyle station was going to close and we just spent all this money to rehabilitate it … That’s not the case.”
McKay stressed that the use of transfer stations will be revaluated over the next year.
“There could be some other things we could do at them,” he noted.
Ice storm cleanup
McKay also reported on a request from a resident who had damage on his property from the March 24 to 25 ice storm.
The county offered free brush drop off at several transfer stations and the county landfill site until the end of April. The resident suggested it should be extended until the end of May.
While the committee had “a good discussion” on the suggestion, it was decided not to extend the service, largely due to timing issues, said McKay.
However, he said the suggestion would be part of a review of the county’s handling of such situations.
“Staff is going to come in with a report in the fall to make sure we have a good policy in place,” said McKay.
