Next week, County of Simcoe councillors will be sitting down for a workshop to hash out concerns with the county’s controversial new automated cart waste collection system, less than a week ahead of the roll out of the program. (The program is not for Orillia residents, but does apply to those in Oro-Medonte, Ramara and Severn Townships and those across the county).
As part of the Oct. 26 County of Simcoe workshop, councillors will decide whether the county should offer alternate cart size options for residents in the future, and will have an opportunity to bring myriad of concerns heard from residents directly to the attention of staff in the public forum.
According to the 27-page staff report for the workshop, the estimated cost to offer alternate sizes will come in between $2 and $4 million for the first year, with ongoing annual operating costs estimated at $1.1 million.
In the report, Rob McCullough, the county's director of solid waste management, estimates the actual number of exchanges that would be required would range between five and 12 per cent of serviced units. The costs will differ depending on the options selected by county council on Tuesday.
The main decision to be made as part of Tuesday’s meeting will be for council to choose between three options as a path forward:
- either to allow expedited cart exchanges (Option 1),
- to wait to make a decision based on the results of a user survey to be completed within six months and the Briar’s pilot project (Option 2),
- or to not allow cart exchanges (Option 3).
After voting for one of the three options, more options will be voted on by councillors regarding hiring staff/extending contracts of existing staff to implement the changes, determining eligibility rules for exchanges and creating self-service technology to facilitate exchanges.
If Option 1 is voted upon by council, the staff report indicates the soonest size exchanges could begin would be in mid-to-late February, and would depend on other decisions made at Tuesday’s meeting.
One man’s trash is another man’s trouble (or, how we got here)
In June of 2020, county council approved the move to the new automated cart collection system through a possible $31.5-million contract to be implemented in late 2021. The collection contract was awarded to Miller Waste Services.
After negotiations at that time, Willma Bureau, the county's contracts and collections supervisor, clarified that the costs were estimated to come in at 28 per cent less than budgeted.
In November 2020, county council voted in favour of choosing Rehrig Pacific to manufacture the carts, deciding to obtain 240-litre garbage carts, 360-litre recycling carts and 120-litre organics carts for all property owners across Simcoe County.
At that time, multiple councillors raised concerns such as the size of the bins, how people living in townhouses were supposed to fit the bins in already small spaces, how residents in rural areas were supposed to drag larger bins, how disposal of old bins would be taking place, how the county would be providing repairs to broken bins and how locking mechanisms would work to keep out animals.
In April, county councillors gave approval to proceeding with a waste collection pilot project in New Tecumseth, which would see condo owners in Green Briar/Briar Hill being given an option for a smaller cart size.
This summer, when all residents received mailers from the County of Simcoe regarding the new system, many started voicing similar concerns, some asking for smaller cart options. In Collingwood, a petition was started in July by residents of the Blue Fairway subdivision asking for smaller cart options and was sent to Warden George Cornell.
Shortly afterward, a petition started by Collingwood resident Dave Dickson (which currently sits at 2,875 signatures) made the rounds on multiple community Facebook groups from Collingwood, to Wasaga Beach, to Essa Township and beyond in a grassroots effort to push for alternate bin sizing options for automated waste collection, and was also sent to Warden Cornell.
Neither petition is mentioned in the workshop staff report.
Collingwood’s Downtown Business Improvement Area (BIA) has also raised concerns that the new bins will create issues of accessibility, cleaning and snow removal in many downtown spaces.
Carts began being delivered across Simcoe County starting in August. Curbside collection using the new automated system starts Nov. 1.
All eligible residences and businesses should have received three new waste carts by Oct. 23. If your household or business has not received your carts by then, contact the Service Simcoe Contact Centre at 1-800-263-3199.
As of Nov. 1, residents can drop off old curbside collection bins for free until March 31, 2022 at any County of Simcoe waste facility.
The County of Simcoe’s special waste management workshop for council will take place on Oct. 26 at 11 a.m. The meeting can be viewed live by the public on the County of Simcoe’s YouTube channel here.
