If all goes as planned, I will deliver the presentation noted well below to City Council on this Monday morning. I believe Council can save taxpayers upwards of $2 million dollars on the proposed 2013 to 2020 garbage and recycling collection contract by maintaining the current household rate of one garbage container per week. The proposed contract recommends up to six garbage containers per household, to be collected every second week. One very knowledgeable person told me that my presentation won’t make a difference because the proposed contract has already been approved by Committee and Council will automatically accept and approve the Committee’s recommendation.  I’m fairly new at interacting with local government, so I am going to give it a try, but I could use your support.

Last week, approximately 15 people confirmed their participation in our second Lets’ Call City Hall campaign to show support for a one garbage bag limit. A few people retweeted the message and a few commented on Facebook. Thank you to everyone who made an effort to engage City Hall. We experienced the exponential participation growth that we were seeking but this will be the week we find out if people really believe that civic engagement can produce positive results. Even if you called last week, it would be helpful if you call again and for everyone who did not call, please do so on Monday morning or whenever you can. It would be REALLY nice if you would also tweet individual Council members before or during my presentation. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly when I am up to make my presentation, but I will be there by 9:30 am. If you receive this message later than I had hoped, then please still call and tweet.

Some people have asked me what they should say when they call City Hall. The following script may be helpful and you are welcome to add or delete any information to meet your needs. Leaving your name, phone number, home address and email address will provide Councillors a better opportunity to respond and to determine if you live in their Wards. The following represents the message that I will leave tonight.

“Hello, my name is Larry Pomerantz with the Hamilton Civic League. I am calling from 1## Main St West in Hamilton, my phone number is 905-545-#### and my email address is HamiltonCivicLeague@gmail.com. This message is for the Mayor and all Councillors. I am calling to register my support for the current limit of one garbage container per household per week. Please do not accept a waste and recycling contract that permits increases to the current limit. Thank you.

Let’s Call City Hall and let them know we support a one garbage container limit.

Call 905-546-CITY (2489) during regular business hours. (Monday to Friday, 8 am to 4 pm).

Call 905-546-2730 outside regular business hours. (Councillors’ reception).

You can also tweet “ I support a one container limit. LetsCallCityHall ” to individual Councillors if you have their account info. I don’t have the information at my fingertips this time. Does anyone else have it?

Send an email to HamiltonCivicLeague@gmail.com to confirm you made a call to City Hall. We will update the LetsCallCityHall website with the number of calls confirmed. The Hamilton Civic League welcomes proposals for future Let’s Call City Hall campaigns.

 Join / re-join the Hamilton Civic League to guarantee receipt of future updates and please forward this email to extend our invitation of free 2012 membership to your family and friends.

Here is Part of my Presentation to Council.

It is garbage day in my neighbourhood today. I placed two blue boxes, a green cart and a mostly empty garbage can curbside. It required two trips to the curb; the first carrying two stacked blue boxes and the second dragging both the wheeled green cart and the wheeled garbage can. When I arrive home later today, I will stack the two empty blue boxes and take them back to my house with the garbage container and green cart, in a single trip. Two trips to the curb, one trip back to the house.

When I think about it, I could just make one trip to and back from the curb using only one container. Everything inside the blue boxes and the green cart could have fit into the one garbage container along with my garbage.

I am sure there are Hamiltonians who don’t bother to recycle because the current one garbage container limit meets all their weekly waste disposal needs. I believe it is safe to say that there are many more households that could not get by with a single garbage container. Maybe they would need two or three to handle all of their weekly waste, and recycling. If a single garbage container provides enough weekly capacity for me to avoid recycling today, a two or three weekly garbage container limit would make it easy for almost all Hamilton households to opt-out of recycling in the future.

City Staff state, “most households already meet the current one garbage container limit.” Today, garbage day, most households in my neighbourhood will abide by the bylaw and only put one garbage container curbside. There is no need to increase the limit to two or three containers when the garbage trucks already pickup all of Hamilton’s garbage under a one container limit. We could offer to pay the garbage contractors more to accept additional garbage, but we only generate one garbage container of waste per household each week, so why would we offer to pay more, when we don’t generate more garbage?

The proposed waste and recycling contract calls for an increase to allow up to six (6) containers per household to be collected every second week at an additional cost to taxpayers of $250,000 annually or $1.75 million over the duration of the contract. Based on current levels of garbage generated, most households will require no more than (2) containers and City Staff state “many households may continue to set out a minimum amount of garbage on the proposed bi-weekly schedule.” I represent one of the households that will continue to set out only one garbage container bi-weekly.

With respect to the issue of illegal dumping, the following has been taken directly from the City’s website.

Municipalities who implement container limits do not experience a sustained increase in illegal dumping. For example, Kingston experienced a small increase in illegal dumping at first, but it was nothing like what they were told would happen. As quoted in The Hamilton Spectator on November 22, 2007, Kingston’s solid waste manager John Giles notes “It is a perceived problem, but in reality it is not.”

Source :  http://www.hamilton.ca/CityDepartments/PublicWorks/WasteManagement/ONE+Container+Limit+Answers.htm

Illegal dumping cited by City Staff refers to “bulk items and leaf and yard waste”. The new contract provides weekly leaf and yard waste collection so this particular dumping issue should be resolved. Increased garbage container limits will not affect illegal bulk item dumping, however eliminating transfer station fees for bulk items only may reduce dumping incidents. Clearly, illegal dumping cannot justify a proposed increase to the number of garbage containers permitted per household.

With respect to the issue of “special consideration and grace weeks”, where heightened volumes of waste may be generated at individual properties or City-wide, the City currently has a process in place to accommodate such circumstances. Staff report the related administrative cost to taxpayers to be minimal at approximately ¼ of a full-time employee’s wages.  

Waste Watchers (WW) is an Earth Day Hamilton (EDH) program in partnership with the City, Waste Reduction Task Force and the Clean City Liaison Committee. WW provides waste diversion education, assistance and training at festivals, schools and other public spaces. EDH is prepared to expand its WW program to households in need of assistance to achieve the current one container limit. 

In conclusion, acceptance of the proposed contract while maintaining the current limit of one garbage container per household per week (or two garbage containers bi-weekly), will result in the following benefits:

-          Save taxpayers $1.75 million on the proposed contract

-          Reduce potential for households opting-out of waste diversion/recycling initiatives

-          Heighten diversion rates

-          Increase City revenues through the sale of additional recyclable material

-          Assist more households to achieve the current container limit

-          Reduce incidences of illegal dumping

It should also be noted that the proposed contract ends in the year 2020. Maintaining the current garbage container limit will greatly increase our community’s ability to achieve the waste diversion and minimization goals stated and endorsed by Council in the Vision2020 document.

Presentation ends here!

Is there great meaning in a single word? I just learned late tonight that the newly proposed Solid Waste Management Master Plan (SWMMP) is missing the word “DIVERSION” from the following guiding principle:

Principle #3: The City of Hamilton must maintain responsibility for the residual wastes generated within its boundaries. Inter-regional DIVERSION facilities will be considered.

Incineration becomes an option when the word DIVERSION is removed. Incineration facilities require large ongoing quantities of waste materials and diversion initiatives such as one garbage container limits significantly reduce available quantities of waste. A six garbage container limit would result in more available waste for an incinerator. Once again, I have stayed up way too late. I’m sure the missing word is simply a typo otherwise it could become a future issue for a Let’s Call City Hall campaign.

Local Mayan calendar followers, consider 2012 your final call to contribute to this community we all call home. With 930+ facebook friends, 330+ twitter followers and 450+ email contacts, the Hamilton Civic League has tremendous potential to mobilize our community to take action towards building the inclusive, equitable, sustainable and prosperous city we all desire. If we hope to achieve our goals, we must accept responsibility to continuously direct our locally elected officials and the approximate 6000 City staff to attend to our needs, as we prioritize them.

The Hamilton Civic League is committed to working with our members and partner organizations to identify and prioritize widely held community values and to clearly communicate with local government to ensure our priorities are acted upon. The Hamilton Civic League will conduct a 2012 Values and Priorities Survey from which the results will be used to assess current City priorities. Our Let’s Call City Hall communications campaign encourages the community to maintain an ongoing connection to City Hall. We will applaud local government when decisions are made in support of widely held values, and alert the community to take action when government actions are at odds with our priorities. Finances are a critical component to the overall success of every community but not the only factor determining our quality of life. It is however extremely important to monitor if and how our tax dollars are being used to improve quality of life for all residents. The Hamilton Civic League invites members and partner organizations with financial expertise to contribute to our Let’s Follow Our Money project team.

Make 2012 the year we unify our voices to assist local government to build the City we desire. Please invite your family and friends to join the Hamilton Civic League today.

Please join us as the Hamilton Civic League meets on Monday August 29th, 7 to 9 pm at Volunteer Hamilton, 267 King St East.

If you are new to the Hamilton Civic League then please begin by reviewing our website at www.WeVote.ca.

Draft Agenda For Monday August 29th, 2011.

• Introductions
• Our History
• Past and Present Challenges
• 2011 – 2012 Goals/Plans – Communication Strategies, Partnerships, Membership, Action Items
• Recent/Upcoming Elections – 2010 municipal, 2011 federal, 2011 provincial

Join us and be a part of the positive change we all seek. Share your experiences and ideas. Listen, ask, comment, learn and share.