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Wednesday, 11 February 2015 15:05

County Council votes for five day weekly garbage and recycling

OXFORD COUNTY - Starting in September, the majority of Oxford County households will receive both weekly garbage and recycling collection.

County Council decided to go with a five day weekly collection after some debate from mayors in Norwich and Zorra Township who felt a six day cycle made collection fair for all residents. The five day collection would give residents a fixed day in which their waste would be collected, unless collection came on a long weekend.

Norwich Mayor Larry Martin says there is currently a lot of miscommunication around a five day schedule when it comes to holiday pick up for those with garbage collections on Mondays and Fridays.

"The unknown of when your garbage is going to be picked up, that was the biggest problem. If you could sit here and listen, is it going to go Monday? Is it going to go Tuesday? Under the 6 day cycle, if you're going to be picked up on Monday, you're going to be picked up on Tuesday and so on. It's not nearly as complicated as people will have you believe that it is going to be."

Zorra Township Mayor Margaret Lupton says every long weekend small communities see garbage along the streets due to collection on a Monday because often times businesses aren't open Sundays or their garbage is collected before stores open on Monday so waste is put out on Saturdays.

Lupton says based on reactions from the other mayors, having a municipality other than Zorra take Monday collection shouldn't be a problem.

East Zorra Tavistock Mayor Don McKay interjected that Monday and Friday collection was not the focus of the discussion and stated that the public wanted ease.

Tillsonburg Mayor Stephen Molnar seconded that saying that garbage should be simple and that residents wanted to put the garbage on the curb in the morning and have it gone when they returned home in the evening.

Ultimately the decision for 5 day weekly collection won out by a vote of 6-3 with Martin, Lupton and Warden David Mayberry voting against it.

Director of Public Works and Environmental Services, Rob Walton says you need to look at the triple bottom line.

"There is over $300,000 in yearly savings over the current program. We are bringing weekly recycling back into the program by using co-collection, single stream recycling which will be simpler for the owners to engage with and participate."

Walton says the problem with single stream is the potential for higher contamination levels which then turns into a higher refuse rate and then doesn't achieve all of the environmental gains. Walton says he is confident residents will adopt the program and do the best they can with it.

The five day collection cycle will still reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent over the model currently offered.

The changes will not impact residents in Woodstock or Southwest Oxford.

According to the staff report "recyclables processing in Woodstock, bulk waste collection in Ingersoll and curbside garbage and recycling collection services currently provided by Woodstock, Ingersoll and South-West Oxford respectfully continue to be discussed with maximum cost levels being
established by the competitive proposal process."