General News

Region says new garbage collection system working

February 3, 2016   ·   0 Comments

By Bill Rea
While there have been some glitches, there’s a lot of satisfaction with Peel Region’s new cart base system for collecting garbage.
The program, which came into effect at the start of this year, has seen residents issued three carts; one for garbage, one for materials to be recycled and a green bin for organic waste. The green bins can be put out every week, while the other two go out alternate weeks.
Peel’s Director of Waste Management Norman Lee last week gave Regional councillors a progress report on how things have been going, and his comments were pretty positive.
The reaction from councillors was positive too.
“I was not predicting it would be that smooth,” Mississauga Councillor Carolyn Parrish observed.
Some concerns persist, however.
Mississauga Councillor Jim Tovey pointed out one problem that’s developed has been with squirrels getting into green bins. Efforts were made to make sure raccoons weren’t able to get in, but he said squirrels have been able to eat holes into them.
Lee said he’s been looking into these “very persistent” creatures, adding there’s no answer yet.
He said most residents (on the order of 97 per cent) are getting their carts out the correct day, and placing them properly in relation to the road (facing the right way and roughly one metre apart). He said there were some problems the first couple of weeks, with people setting out their old blue boxes instead of the new bins, but many of them seemed to get the idea when they saw what their neighbours were doing. He also said there were a number of people who were late putting their carts out, but they are getting used to the new schedules. As well, some people have been putting out the wrong carts (recycling the week they should be putting out garbage, etc).
Lee also said staff have been working to get in touch with these people to help get them on track.
He also said these problems were not really a surprise. He said some complications were expected from the time the new program was approved last year.
“There were going to be some challenges,” he said. “We’ve had some.”
The program has two new contractors to collect the material, and they have had to get used to the routine. Lee said there have been cases of streets and houses being missed, but those numbers have been dropping as weeks have gone by.
“They’re getting better,” he said, pointing out there were almost 8,000 homes missed the first week, but only about 300 the fourth week.
He added the trucks are equipped with GPS, so dispatchers know if a street has been missed.
Lee also said there have been some problems with the carts, such as wheels falling off, or the locks on the green bins freezing shut in the cold. Staff have been doing their best to help out. He added only about 0.05 per cent of the carts have lost wheels, and that’s consistent with what’s been reported in other places in North America where the program’s in place. He added just about all the carts should have been put out by now, so if wheels are going to fall off, it should have happened by now. He also agreed if frustrating for people who can’t get their green bins open.
“We’ll get that fixed,” he said.
There have been 21 additional staff brought in to provide on-road resident support as people get used to the program.
“They’ve been busy,” Lee said, “all 21 of them.”
He also expressed appreciation that some councillors have taken the time to thank these staffers. It boosts their spirits to get “happy calls.”
People have been contacting the Region regarding the program, and Lee said 97 per cent of these have been on-line or through email. Staff decided early to funnel as many of these calls as possible on line, because they were concerned the phone lines would have been swamped. Temporary help was brought in to deal with the phone calls. Lee said there were some wait times of 20 minutes in the first week, but that has improved too, and the number of inquiries has been falling as well.
“We take customer service seriously in our division,” he said.
One advantage from the program is financial. Lee said the budget for his department is $5 million less than last year.
He also said use of green bins is far ahead of last year. In 2015, green bins collected some 2,000 tonnes of material in the first month. The numbers have already passed the 3,000-tonne mark this year.
There had been concerns expressed over the last several months of how people would maneuver their carts through snow.
“Thank goodness it isn’t last winter,” Tovey remarked, adding he’s been hearing more compliments than complaints.
Tovey added he’s heard of some residents pooling material with their neighbours into one bin.
Brampton Councillor Grant Gibson said staff has done a “phenomenal job,” adding he’s only heard one complaint about them.
The issue he brought up dealt with people only being able to put their recycling out every two weeks. There have also been concerns about people not being able to fill a green bin every week.
Lee said they would keep an eye on volumes, adding they would not want to see people putting recyclable material into the garbage bin because the other one was full. Regarding green bins, he said he would wait until the heat of summer before considering cutting back on the collection schedule.
Lee told Mississauga Councillor Karen Ras residents are allowed to put out extra blue recycling bags if their bins are full.
He also told Ras there will be a system set up for collecting the old blue boxes, although people will be encouraged to keep them and find other uses around the home. Lee said they can be dropped off for free at community recycling centres. He added there are arrangements to send boxes that are in good shapes to municipalities in the north that are having trouble affording them.
Caledon Councillor Annette Groves asked the public be informed of when the old boxes would be collected.
Parrish raised the issue of bins toppling over in the wind.
“It makes a great noise,” she said.
There was also lots of praise from councillors for Garnet Barnsdale, supervisor of waste collection.
“You know I won’t be able to manage Garnet,” Lee told them, reacting to all the positive comments directed to him.

HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM SO FAR? Peel Region’s cart-based system for collecting garbage has been in place a month now. Regional staff reported last week there were some settling-in glitches, but they are being sorted out. Councillors had positive comments to make about the program so far.

HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM SO FAR?
Peel Region’s cart-based system for collecting garbage has been in place a month now. Regional staff reported last week there were some settling-in glitches, but they are being sorted out. Councillors had positive comments to make about the program so far.

         

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