I withheld judgment on this new automated waste pickup system until I could see it operating for a few weeks. Now that I’ve seen it I’m not impressed.
Compare the old method to the new rules: Carts are to be in place on your day of pickup no later than 7 a.m. and removed by 7 p.m. They need to be at least three feet apart and one foot out from a fence. There must be at least 10 feet of clearance above them. Our days of pickup are Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday with no exceptions for statutory holidays.
We’re told “despite the expanded and improved service…costs remain the same.”
I take issue with the “improved service” aspect and here’s why:
Fully one-third of the homes in this town have a choice of having their garbage picked up on a Monday or going away on a long weekend. Given that statutory holidays are almost always on Mondays, one-third of Innisfail homes can’t put their bins out early for pickup according to “the rules.”
Is this fair to those homeowners who will have to tolerate stinking garbage and organic waste for two weeks when the other two-thirds of town have their waste picked up weekly because their day is not a Monday?
Did anyone take into consideration there are numerous cul-de-sacs in this town, and once both bins are out on their day of pickup, they are either blocking traffic or driveways all day?
Supposedly this “improved” system diverts significantly more garbage away from the waste transfer station. Well, the only garbage getting diverted is the organic waste, which actually decomposes quickly and so doesn’t take up room at the dump for long. I might add that the people who wanted to compost were already doing so, and the rest of them can’t be bothered to put one little bag of compostable garbage into that huge green bin and haul it to the curb.
The latest “care for your green bin” advice tells us to rinse out the green bin weekly with vinegar, and put a layer of newspaper in between layers of compost in order to reduce the smell. If I tried to get into a four-foot high bin to wipe it out with vinegar I would be in it head first with my legs waving in the air. Who needs this hassle?
There are many homes that have a problem finding a place to store these huge bins -- row houses of all kinds for example. Where are the bins supposed to sit during the week?
Bins need to be put in place weekly (see rules), which will be particularly difficult in the winter. I take issue with the claim that these bins are easy to move empty or full. They aren’t. They are huge and unwieldy on a smooth surface, let alone heaving them through snowdrifts.
So, this is not an “improved” system at all, although it certainly has been expanded to be far more effort on the part of every homeowner.
Lori Armstrong,
Innisfail
