Be ready for garbage changes

Ready or not, here it comes. As of next Monday, weekly municipal garbage collection in Waterloo Region will be a thing of the past.

From then on, like it or not, residents will have to accept that their trash will be picked up every other week, just as they will also have to make do with tougher limits on the number of garbage bags they can put out.

These are major changes to a vital service that has for too long been taken for granted. And as expected, the grumbling and griping have begun.

But while the new system will not be welcomed by everyone, it is both necessary and manageable.

For the environment’s sake, this region had to change how it handles garbage.

Far too much of the waste being produced by this community of affluent consumers is needlessly and wrongly buried in the regional landfill. In fact, more half of what regional residents toss in the trash could have been composted or recycled instead.

Although the region is cutting back on how often it collects trash starting March 6, it will still pick up blue-box recyclables and green-bin organic waste every week.

This should provide a gentle nudge that persuades people to use their green bins instead of dumping kitchen scraps in a garbage bag and letting them hang around, and raise a stink, for a couple of weeks.

As a result, the region should be able to divert more waste than ever from the regional landfill while increasing the amount of material being recycled and composted.

Reducing waste, reusing and recycling, turning table scraps into food-growing fertilizers — these all bring environmental benefits.

But the coming changes will also extend the life of the regional landfill for years to come. Not only is this a better use of a public facility, it gives the region more time to decide what to do when this landfill can’t take any more waste.

And if you aren’t sold on the environmental arguments, consider this. Increasing the lifespan of the regional landfill will save you money. Moreover, the more organic waste we send for composting, the more cost-effective the contract for that service becomes for taxpayers.

Making this transition should be a piece of cake for a community that prides itself on pioneering blue-box recycling decades ago and is one of the last large communities in Ontario to end weekly garbage pickup.

The bag limit is hardly onerous. Residents will be allowed to put out four bags of garbage every two weeks for pickup.

If they want to get rid of more they can — they’ll just have to buy a $2 tag for each extra bag.

Adjusting to the new era of garbage pickup will require people to become informed about what’s happening and then expend a little more effort to make it all work.

That shouldn’t be beyond the capabilities of anyone who’s a citizen of this region.

And if you consider yourself a good citizen of the Planet Earth, you’ll relish doing your part in a worthy cause.