Last Monday, City Staff presented a recommendation to move forward with a garbage and recycling contract that included a six garbage container limit. Several delegations, including the Hamilton Civic League, also made presentations.
Peter Hutton with the Waste Reduction Task Force made it very clear that the City must address public misconceptions surrounding bi-weekly garbage collection. The current recommendation includes continuation of a weekly pickup schedule for blue boxes and green carts. It is the non-recyclable garbage that will move to a bi-weekly collection schedule. Multi-residential units would not be limited to one single container but would have a two container limit per residential unit to be collected bi-weekly. Many communities such as Halton have adopted the bi-weekly garbage collection schedule. One of the stated benefits of weekly recycling collection coupled with bi-weekly garbage collection is a greater effort to recycle as households prefer not to wait for garbage collection week. Peter also warned against a blanket policy that increases container limits simply to achieve a one size fits all program.
Dr. Lynda Lukasik with Environment Hamilton highlighted the six garbage container limit and suggested that education campaigns in partnership with citizen groups would be helpful. She also suggested that if a proposal allowing for a higher garbage container limit is approved, that options exist for incremental reductions throughout the seven year contract period. Lynda told me that Hamilton once had a nine container limit. We have come a long way and this is not the time to take a step backwards.
Vaughan Martin with the Flamborough Community Council supported bi-weekly collection of garbage but also recommended consideration for EFW (Energy From Waste) options. Incineration (EFW) is a complicated issue involving economic, environmental and social factors that will require a great deal of community input. Our previous LetsCallCityHall campaign mentioned incineration as it was noted that the word “DIVERSION” was recently removed from one of the guiding principles for the City’s Solid Waste Management Master Plan, thus opening the door to incineration. It is my understanding that a grant was just approved for a study to look into a Public-Private Partnership for a Sludge Incinerator.
I made a presentation, on behalf of the Hamilton Civic League, highlighting the fact that the proposed six container limit would allow 95% of Hamiltonians to opt out of the current blue box and green cart diversion programs. City Staff informed us that Halton is now proposing a reduction to 3 garbage containers collected bi-weekly. The Staff report acknowledged that most Hamiltonians already meet the one container limit per week. Based on that fact, there is no need to increase to 3 containers bi-weekly. The City has a partnership with a citizen operated Waste Watchers initiative that currently offers waste diversion programs to schools and festivals. I suggested that it could be expanded to assist households having difficulty meeting the current container limits.
Councillors asked questions about bi-weekly collection of pet waste and diapers and had concerns about potential for increased illegal dumping resulting from container limits. These appear to be among the issues of greatest concern with respect to bi-weekly collection of two garbage containers. Although pet waste is compostable (Green Venture offers related information/programs) it is not accepted in the green cart mainly due to the “yuck” factor which would reduce public acceptance of the compost generated and currently sold. Although pet waste composting is a more environmentally friendly solution, responsible pet owners should have no problem disposing of pet waste generated over a two week period by keeping it in a separate sealed bag. The pet waste bag could be discarded inside another bag/container as part of the bi-weekly collected two garbage container limit.
There is no limit on the size of a garbage bag, so as long as a container of diapers weighs less than 50 lbs, there should be no need to increase container limits. There is an existing “special consideration” process through which households may apply for additional waste disposal capacity, so once again, diaper disposal should not cloud the container limit issue.
Councillors also asked Staff to report on the cause and effect relationships between illegal dumping, container limits and minimum fees at local waste transfer stations. It will be interesting to learn if minimum fees collected at transfer stations exceed the cost of cleaning up illegal dumping sites. In either case, we need a plan to deal with illegal dumping, a problem which will likely continue with or without transfer station fees and regardless of container limits. I recommmended Waste Watchers conduct waste audits at illegal dumping sites in an effort to identify the source of the problem. This is a very good time to recall Peter Hutton’s warning about implementing blanket policies such as increasing container limits to solve illegal dumping.
Last week, eight people CONFIRMED calls to City Hall and many commented on the container limit issue on Raise The Hammer.
This week I will contact City Hall with the following message:
“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 support waste audit and enforcement strategies to deal with illegal dumping issues and oppose blanket policy initiatives that would increase garbage container limits for everyone. Thank you.”
Let’s Call City Hall and let them know we do not support an increase to garbage container limits as an acceptable solution for illegal dumping.
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 enforcement strategies over increasing container limits to address illegal dumping. LetsCallCityHall ” to individual Councillors.
- Peggy Chapman @pegaroochapman, chief of staff to Mayor Bob Bratina
- Jason Farr @Councillor_Farr, Ward 2
- Bernie Morelli @BernieMorelli, Ward 3
- Sam Merulla @SamMerulla, Ward 4
- Chad Collins Collins_Ward5, Ward 5
- Terry Whitehead @terrywhitehead, Ward 8
- Brad Clark @VoteBradClark, Ward 9
- Judi Partridge @judipartridge, Ward 15
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.
Best regards,
Larry Pomerantz
