An extra green bin if pickup is biweekly
Niagara Region is considering ways to help residents cope with the switch to biweekly trash collection next year.
On Tuesday, Niagara’s public works committee discussed options for providing people additional green bins for organic waste as well as recycling boxes for residents.
That came two weeks after council approved a plan to collect two containers of garbage every other week — rather than the current once-a-week collection — while maintaining weekly pickup of organic and recycling materials when the changes are implemented next October.
Niagara’s collection and diversion program manager Lucy McGovern provided committee members with seven options for increasing the distribution of the containers, in the hope they will be better utilized by residents.
“If we provide additional waste diversion containers, the hope is that the extra capacity would be used to remove the organics and recyclables from the garbage and divert them into containers that can be set out at the curb each week,” McGovern said.
Options ranged from free door-to-door delivery of containers to all 155,000 Niagara households, at a cost $4.4-million, to continuing the current program of selling containers on a full cost-recovery basis at $4 each for kitchen catchers, $6 for recycle boxes and $17 for green organics bins.
Rather than giving away the containers for free, members leaned toward providing 50 per cent subsidy on the sale of new containers, at an anticipated cost of up to $251,000.
West Lincoln Coun. Albert Witteveen was one of several committee members who said he would support subsidizing residents for half the cost of the containers.
“I think 50/50 is a good way. People who want to participate in this are actually going to be able to see the value in it,” he said.
If the containers were just given away, Witteveen said, residents would not appreciate them as much.
St. Catharines Coun. Brian Heit agreed, saying “people are going to use them for all kinds of reasons, but not necessarily for the purpose we want them to.”
“Even if they buy them, they still might use them for hockey sticks in Port Colborne and maybe even in St. Catharines,” he said.
With about half of Niagara residents not currently using the green bins they were provided, St. Catharines Coun. Kelly Edgar asked: “If we give them new ones, what makes us think they’re going to use them then?”
“I can’t imagine that more education is going to change the minds of these people. Everybody knows that these programs are important. … When they start having raccoons get into their garbage and strewing it all over their yard, maybe then they’d start thinking it was a good idea to use diversion,” Edgar said.
“I’m just really disappointed in the residents of Niagara, at least in 50 per cent of the residents. I don’t know that this will change their behaviour. I think it’s really disappointing.”
Edgar suggested fining people who don’t use green bins, and McGovern said there is a potential for implementing them.
However, she added, when awareness campaigns are combined with service changes like moving to collection every other week, “you do drive participation.”
“There’s no way of knowing for certain, but the hope is when you provide tools and education, the residents will be more likely to use the program,” McGovern said.
Niagara Falls Coun. Bob Gale pointed out many residents choose not to use green bins, opting instead to compost their organic waste themselves.
“I think the residents are a lot better than what the 50 per cent says there,” he said.
Region staff were asked to develop another report on the issue, with refined options based on providing a 50 per cent subsidy for the sale of the containers.