Simcoe County is changing curbside garbage, recycling and organics collection and it means every home on the county’s pickup routes will be getting new bins on wheels.
At a council meeting yesterday, county councillors gave the final approval for a new waste collection contract awarded to Miller Waste to provide curbside collection for all of the Simcoe County municipalities except Barrie and Orillia, which look after their own waste collection.
By November 2021, Miller will be using an automated cart collection system for curbside pickup in Simcoe County. The trucks will use a mechanical arm to grab and dump the wheeled carts. The driver will not have to get out of the truck at each stop, but households will be required to use the standard wheeled carts provided by the county.
Each home will receive three new wheeled carts, one for garbage, one for recycling, and one for organics, before the changes take effect.
“We’ve worked hard to correct some of the labour challenges we have experienced with our collections this past year,” said Simcoe County Warden George Cornell in a press release.
Collingwood households experienced several weeks of missed collections this summer. The company previously under contract with the county sited labour shortages and extreme heat as the reason for the shortfalls.
County council opted to switch to a bi-weekly collection schedule this February for garbage and recycling, leaving organic collection on a weekly schedule.
“Since starting bi-weekly garbage collection in February, our green bin tonnage collection has increased by as much as 50 per cent resulting in a decrease in garbage tonnage even though so many of us are staying home to manage the pandemic and generating and disposing all our wastes at home,” said Rob McCullough, director of solid waste management for the County of Simcoe, in a news release.
Garbage and recycling will still be collected bi-weekly on alternating weeks and green bin collection will remain on a weekly basis.
There may be changes to routes and collection days, but those will be announced in 2021 by the county.
County council selected Miller Waste from three bids submitted. The bids were presented to council in a closed session and anonymously so council didn’t know which companies submitted the bids. Council ranked them and voted in a public session to award the contract to the highest ranked bidder. It was announced yesterday, the highest ranked bidder was Miller Waste.
-With files from Jessica Owen
